#type of path a video game is begging you to walk down

[arhvste]

❝ kuroo tetsurō - tetsuhoe ❞

in which kuroo is confused by the ‘playboy’ image pinned onto him after a practice match at fukurodani much to you, his long term girlfriends, amusement

tetsu week masterlist

“did you see the captains for nekoma’s team yesterday?”

“oh their tall middle blocker with the bed hair? he was something else!”

“i just know he’s got girls crawling all over him back at nekoma. i think i’m gonna transfer schools!”

your eyebrow raised in amusement towards the girls nearby who were mindlessly babbling on about a particular rooster headed captain you were familiar with.

the high praise he was recovering in your classroom would certainly give him an ego boost, realistically though, these girls couldn’t have been further from the truth; you were partially thankful for that.

akaashi took notice of your entertained expression as he took his seat beside you in the unsupervised classroom.

“ah,” he clicked his tongue gesturing towards the squealing girls. “they’re talking about kuroo-san when they had the practice match here yesterday.”

you nodded towards your own school teams setter and smiled. “listen to them.” you hummed as akaashi leaned a little further on his desk facing towards the small group of girls nearby.

“what was his name again?”

“i’m not sure, i never got the chance to go down and talk to him!”

“whatever his name is i know it’s one i want to scream”

“you’re so bad!”

akaashi cringed at the rawness of these girls vocabulary. so they thought kuroo was hot? why they couldn’t just word it like that and leave it at that, akaashi would never know. he turned to face you as you pulled your phone out to discreetly record the girls fussing over your boyfriend.

“y/n, isn’t that a little... intrusive?” akaashi quirked an eyebrow towards your smug expression.

“this isn’t an act of jealousy but rather amusement. besides, aren’t they being a little intrusive speaking about my boyfriend like this? tetsu’s gonna shit himself when he hears this, they’ve mischaracterised him completely.”

akaashi nodded before casting his gaze back over to the girls before looking back towards you while you were texting the very boy the girls in your classroom were raving about.

“aren’t you bothered by it?”

you laughed and shook your head firmly.

“no no! not at all, i can’t blame them for being head over heels for him i mean, i fell for him too didn’t i?”

“by some miracle.” akaashi shot back to which you scoffed before turning your attention back down to the device in your hands.

you made quick work of sending the video to your boyfriend and captioning ‘can i tell the girls your name? they want to know for when you have them scream it’ before shutting your phone off and going back to casual conversation with akaashi before the teacher entered and the class simmered down for work.

back at nekoma, kuroo was currently scrolling through the multiple automated notifications piling up on his phone until your name caught his eye. quickly tapping the screen to open snapchat, kuroo smiled softly at the sight of the little purple square under ‘pretty one <3’.

he wasted no time in pressing down on the video to watch whatever it was you had sent him. turning up the volume, kuroo’s eyes widened a little at the caption you had typed out to go along with the video.

“scream it?” he muttered quietly to himself but not quietly enough to miss kenma’s ears.

“what are you watching?” the bleached haired setter asked bordly.

“y/n’s sent me a video but i don’t really understand.” he mumbled pressing down on the outlines square to get the video to replay once more for kenma to see what he was talking about.

kenma’s face twisted into one of disgust as he feigned a gag to kuroo’s offence.

“is it that unbelievable others find me attractive?”

“it’s not even believable y/n finds you attractive yet alone other girls.”

“you wound me.”

“not physically so you can’t complain.”

kuroo snickered before sending back a picture of himself with a puzzled expression and a grossed out looking kenma with the caption ‘kenma didn’t appreciate the honest content, glad to know the girls at your school have working eyes though?’.

he frowned after shutting his phone off as kenma took a seat besides him on the bench besides the court.

“that was weird, i don’t come across as that type of boy do i?”

kenma shrugged and pulled his own phone out, his attention now divided between his bestfriend and his devices.

“not here you don’t. the girls at fukurōdani just sound annoying and superficial minus y/n obviously.”

kenma muttered, his fingers tapping across his own screen.

“well then, i don’t suppose it’s matters too much then. i hope y/n isn’t too bothered by it though, as much as i love the praise, i don’t want it from anyone but her in that sense.”

“whipped.” kenma tutted quietly as kuroo smiled.

“that, i am.”

a week had passed and the two of you had forgotton about the fuss that the girls in your class had made over kuroo. there was no practice match to attend, but bokuto had insisted yourself, kuroo, kenma and akaashi all come over for dinner by the request of his mother and sisters who had complained how they hadn’t seen the four of you for a while together.

kuroo and kenma (kenma begrudgingly however), agreed to meet the three of you outside the entrance of fukurōdani to join you on your journey back to the bokuto residence.

kenma was reluctant to stand out in what obviously wasn’t a fukurōdani school uniform, but kuroo didn’t mind. it wasn’t rare for students from neighbouring schools to wait for other students after school hours as friendship groups outside of schools obviously existed.

kenma was leaning against the wall of the school gates and kuroo was stood beside him texting the group chat that the two of them had arrived and were waiting for them outside. his attention on his phone and not to those around him, kuroo failed to noticed the high pitched shrills of excitement ringing through the air at the sight of him.

“it’s him! the nekoma captain!”

“i’m gonna talk to him this time, do i look okay?”

“you look fine but i’m the one who’s gonna get his number so don’t get in my way.”

“you can’t say that! it’s whoever he picks!”

by now, kenma had picked up on the bickering of the girls which he considered impressive because usually he’d be able to block out anything outside of his psp.

“annoying.” he muttered coldly before doing his best to turn his attention back to his game.

“hi!”

kuroos head snapped up and he was met with a small group of girls that seemed to be growing with each student that left the gates of the school.

“um... hi?”

his face twisted in confusion as he silently begged yourself, bokuto or even akaashi to come out the gates and rescue him.

“so, you played here the other day didn’t you? you were really good.” one girl praised, her index finger twirling around the front strands of her hair.

“obviously he is. we go to a powerhouse school.” kenma muttered sharply more to himself than anything but it didn’t fail to garner a few dirty looks from the girls. not that kenma could’ve cared less anyway.

“uh thanks. you guys are kinda blocking up the path, you might wanna uh, go home?” kuroo suggested his concern growing at the same rate the group of girls were.

other students were beginning to take notice and while some girls added themselves to the group, other student shot kuroo an apologetic glance to which he half smiled back to.

“this is our territory, we’ll go home when we get your number.” one girl boldly stated to which other girls agreed.

“my girlfriend wouldn’t appreciate it.” he stated matter-o-factly.

the girls faces pulled in disgust and others humour while the ‘leader’ of the group scoffed.

“you don’t have a girlfriend. boys like you don’t settle so just give a few of us your number and eventually you’ll fall for one of us, although it’s more than likely going to be me.”

“actually, i’ve fallen for a girl already and i’ve fallen in deep. there’s no pulling me out so you might aswell run along no? are your parents not worried as to why you’re coming home so late?”

kuroo was growing more irritated than amused by now and he wanted nothing more than your hand in his at that very moment.

“stop lying and just give it to us. why do you treat the nekoma girls differently from us?”

“kuroo-san treats all girls other than y/n, his girlfriend of over a year differently. you’re not deprived so i suggest taking your leave before you cause any more disruption to anyone else.”

“akaashi!” kuroo smiled thankfully to which akaashi only nodded curtly before allowing you to walk by him wide smile drawn across your face.

“tetsu! kenma! i’m so glad to see you both!” you shoved past the shocked girls as you pulled yourself into kuroo’s arms as he happily accepted the gesture.

“i’m relieved to see you kitten.” he replied, the nickname stirring loss over the rest of the girls.

“whatever, you weren’t that hot anyway.” the main girl huffed purely out of embarrassment because not only had she been outdone by yourself, been rejected in public, but she’d also been told off by akaashi and his cold and flat tone did nothing to sugar coat the scolding.

“lying is a bad habit you know!” bokuto added earning a soft laugh from you.

if the girls weren’t embarrassed before, they certainly were now seeing as their own schools captain was now joining in.

“let’s just go.”

the girls filed down the street, embarrassment and regret written across their faces.

“why did you take so long?” kuroo whined as he pulled away to look at you.

“well, if there wasn’t a group of girls rushing through the halls to go see the ‘hot captain from before’ blocking the hallways, i would’ve been faster coming out.”

“i’m just glad you’re here now.” he smiled as the four of you began to walk down the street towards bokuto’s house.

“we’ve never had another captain stir so much commotion before, you must’ve really caught their short minded attention.” akaashi commented as kuroo told you all about the comments about him not having a girlfriend were made.

“yeah tetsuhoe.”

“what did you just call me?”

you snickered as you squeezed his hand.

“you heard me womaniser.”

kuroo groaned as kenma smirked at your teasing.

“you’re the only woman i want.” he sighed as bokuto awed at the two of you.

“yeah? good to know, glad i’m special enough for your attention.” you teased further as the others slowly began to join in much to kuroo’s dismay.

feigning annoyance was hard to do around you, but kuroo was just glad you weren’t bitter over the whole situation. he knew you knew you were the one for him.

playboy reputation or not, kuroo was happy just knowing you were confident in your postion in his heart.

and he’d be sure to remind you the next time he got you alone.

dt - @aislastetsu

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ALL CONTENT BELONGS TO @KUROOSKULT ON TUMBLR 2020 PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, CHANGE OR PLAGIARISE

[karlheisenberganyone]

This is my first post so I’m sorry if it’s bad lmao but yeaaa, this is kinda my first smut post ya knowww- but yea if it’s bad I’m sorry. Also I’m only doing this cause I’m bored asfffff 😫😫 also I might only post smut cause that’s what I’m best at cause I’m one hörny bish lmfao. So yea no one under 18 read I guess.

SMUT UNDER THIS PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Karl Heisenberg x female reader smut 18+

“Only for a bit”

Warning: cursing , kinkyyy, getting tied up, choking, pet calling (sweetheart, kitten) you also using names like sir. Just sexy stuff 😩

Enjoy <3

You were one of the 4 daughters of Lady Dimitrescu. You, Bela, Daniela, and Cassandra were treated very well, with rich delicious wine and goods. You were different from them though. All 4 of them were vampires, but you, you are an ordinary human being. Instead of eating human meat and drinking human blood, you ate normal animal meat and drank fine wine or water. It wasn’t difficult living with this family, you actually really enjoyed it. You had a wonderful mother and wonderful sisters. You felt loved and accepted in their family. You have lived with the Dimitrescu’s since a very younge age. You were brought into the family by Mother Miranda, who apparently found you in the abounded village a few miles away.

Today there was also a very important meeting being held up, and mother insisted you came over to accompany her, which you happily accepted. You were now In your bedroom, getting ready, but stopped when you heard a knock. “Sister, mother told me to bring you this dress she got made especially for you” you heard Bella say behind the door. “Oh ok, thank you very much and tell mother I’m very grateful” you said opening the door and taking the box with the dress in it. “I will, also mother wants you ready in 20 minutes” Bella said disappearing into a swarm of flies. “Ok!” You said loudly but not too loud.

You opened the box to see a gorgeous emerald green dress, with a bunch of gold swirls on the front with green gems. You slowly and carefully put the dress on and then go style your hair. You weren’t really used to these long dresses, and looking very elegant. After 20 minutes, you walked down the stairs in your heels, slowly to not fall over and make a scene of yourself. “You look absolutely stunning, as always dear” you heard your mother call out to you. “Thank you mother, and I’m very grateful for this dress. Bella told me it was specifically made for me” you tell your mother with a soft smile. “Only the best for my sweet beautiful daughter’s” your mother replied back with a soft smile. “So are you ready dear?” Your mother asked turning to look at you. “Yes mother” you said, taking your coat off the hanger and same with mother.

It was early autumn, and it was getting a tiny bit chilly. You walked down the paths, walking past many trees turning all different colours to show it was autumn. It truly was a gorgeous sight to see. After a few minutes of walking, you get to your destination. Mother opens the front door to find Donna sitting peacefully, greeting you and mother, while her doll running around laughing maniacally. Moreau was quietly lighting the candles to bring a bit of light inside. And Heisenberg no where to be seen yet. After all you were 30 minutes early. Mother sat down in her regular spot, talking to Donna about how she has been and catching up. You, you went to talk to Moreau about how well he has been. After 10 minutes of sitting down and talking to Moreau about video games he has, the door was harshly opened by a heavy boot, belonging to no other than Heisenberg. Everyone brings their attention towards the man himself, looking at his toothy white smile, greeting everyone by tilting his hat a bit and walking towards his seat. “So the dog decided to come over” mother started. “Oh shut up you bitch, I always come here for meetings, usually a bit late, but today is different!” Heisenberg said glaring at her through his glasses, and then looking at you, you looking back at him with an angry expression. “What are you frowning at kitten?” He asked you. “I do not like it when someone calls my mother in appropriate names” you said with a harsh and calm tone. “But your “dear mother” has called me a dog so I have full right to call her a bitch” he said putting his hands over he chair, and crossing his legs. “Not like she isn’t right” you mumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear you, and your mother laughing quietly.

“You wanna fight or something kitten?” He asked you leaning forward now. “No, I just don’t like my mother being called harsh words that aren’t true” you said glaring at him. But when he was about to argue, Mother Miranda has arrived, leaving Heisenberg to close his mouth and groan loud enough for you to look at him.

After about an hour or so, the meeting ended. “Y/n, dear, please do me a favour and walk home. I must talk to Mother Miranda about something very important, and I won’t be coming home any time soon” mother said. You give her a reassuring smile and a nod, putting on your coat. You weren’t scared of walking home, because you knew how to fight. You could kill and fight with no problem, after all you do live with vampires. You walked out the door, and first thing you smell is the strong smell of cigar and whiskey, telling you Heisenberg was right there, and you were right. You turned your head towards him watching him smoking his cigar with a “really, here?” look. You shake your head a bit and start walking home, but before you could go you heard him talk. “I didn’t let you go anywhere kitten did I?” He asked you, you turning around to look at him. You took a deep breath and said “no.1 I ain’t no kitten so stop with that kitten shit, and 2nd of all you ain’t my parent so I can do what I want” you said with a little smile and started walking off home.

But Heisenberg didn’t give up easily. He started following you. You turn around rapidly. “What do you want?” You asked. Heisenberg just watched you. You could feel him eye you up and down even with those glasses on. You sighed out loud and started walking again, not caring that he was right behind you anymore. “You know what kitten, come with me to my factory, I wanna show u something” he said suddenly. You turned around once again and looked at him. “Why would I go to your factory?” He sighed “Come on pet, do ya have anything betta to do? No, so come over to mine. At least I’ll have some company”. The thought of you and Heisenberg being together alone made you kind of excited. You liked this man for a bit and loved teasing and annoying him, and he loved doing the same thing.

“Fine, but only for a bit” you said, letting him go in front and lead the way. It was a small walk and you got there real quick. “So here we are, my dear factory” he said showing off his mechanical creation’s. After giving you a walk through the factory, you asked why he invited you over. “Well I had a few questions” he answered, and now ur curiosity wanted to know what he had to ask. “You look curious kitten, would ya like to know?” He asked which you responded with a nod. “Well kitten, why did you chose to listen to me and come over?” Was his question first. “I dunno, I was bored so yea” you responded. “2nd question, what’s your type?” You looked at him with a suspicious look. “Why do you want to know that?” You asked. “You really wanna know kitten?” He asked lowering his voice a bit, which makes you shiver in pleasure. “I would like to know, but is it worth it?” You asked. “Well you will have to wait and see” he said. “Come over here” he said taking his glasses off and hat, and you obeying him and come near him. You could see the lust and need in his eyes making you feel warm and tingly.

“I would like to know why you want to know my type, Heisenberg” you said getting closer to him. “You really wanna know dear?” Seeing the lust in his eyes. “Yes I do” you said, a teasing look on your face. “Cause I wanna see if I’m of any of your standards dear. I wanna see if I can claim you as mine” he said coming closer to your ear, whispering in a deep raspy voice, which made you feel wetness come over. “And what would you do to me if you were of my standards and could claim me as yours?” You asked, teasingly wanting to know his answer. “Oh I’d do a lot to you kitten~” he purred into your ear. “Could you tell me what exactly?” You asked. “Right now, I’d like to rail you right here right now, make you scream my name until you can’t speak no more, listen to your moans like some music, fuck you so hard you start shaking, tie you up and make sure you can’t fuckin escape and make you endure the pleasure” he said making him squirm under him, making you feel like a hot mess, with only words. “Can I touch you?” He asked. You nod, immediately, begging for some friction. He slowly put his hands on your waist, pulling you closer to him, and then taking your chin in one of his hands, and giving you a fast kiss, which soon turned into a heated make out session, his hands travelling around your body, while yours on his shoulders. Picking you up, he places you on the table behind him, throwing everything on the table onto the ground, placing you on top of it not stopping the kiss.

He soon started taking your dress off, unzipping it from the back, slowly to not make no damage. The kiss getting hotter and more heated, tasting the mix between cigar and whiskey, making your knees weak. After taking off the dress, he starts trailing kisses and bites down your jaw and kneck down to your exposed chest. He looked at you with a questionable look, and you gave him a quick nod to show him it was ok. After pleasuring you with your tits, and not getting a lot of moans out of you, it didn’t satisfy Heisenberg.

He laid you down onto your back and took of your panties. He gave you another look, and you nod. He slowly looks at you panties. “I haven’t even touched you that much, but look how fuckin wet you are kitten! And because of me and only for me” he said spreading your lips. He lowered himself biting at your thighs earning a few needy moans. It took him ages to finally give you a bit of pleasure by spreading your lips, and him finally using his mouth and tounge finally licking your clit, making your back arch and moan his name. That made Heisenberg go faster and add more pressure, which made you a moaning hot mess, for him and only him. “You taste fuckin delicious kitten” he said in pants. He then brought his 2 fingers, and slipped them inside you, curling them, making you feel more pleasure. When you felt your orgasm coming, Heisenberg stop what he was doing making you whine . “Come on, Heisenberg, I wanna cum so badly, please lemme cum” you moaned. “But kitten, I’m not done with you yet.” He said taking his shirt off, boots and then undoing his belt.

When he undid his belt, and unzipped his pants, you could see his hard erection, making you wetter. “Enjoying the view princess?” He asked while taking his dick out. You just gave him a needy look and that gave him the hint to put it in. But before that you saw metal scraps flying past him taking your hands and pinning them at the top of your head on the table, making you unable to move your hands. This distracted you, so you didn’t notice Karl moving forward getting in place to rail you. He pushed in, which made you wince in pain letting him enter you bit by bit. You didn’t notice how big he was, feeling him fill you to the brim. “Is that all you can take kitten? Well fuck you still have a bit to go. You are so tight for me baby” he said moaning breathily.

“I cant take anymore Heisenberg, it’s too much” you moaned your legs trembling. “I’ll make you take all of it” he said pushing the rest of his length deep inside, making you arch your back in pleasure, making you gasp hard. He let you adjust to his size for a few minutes until he started moving his hips. At first he went with a slow passionate pace, but seeing you arch your back moaning for more, he picked up speed and strength, taking his dick nearly out, and slamming back in, making you gasp and moan. “Kitten, I want to hear you loud, don’t hide any of your sweet noises” he said breathlessly. You gave him a light nod before him slamming himself into you again, making you nearly scream his name out, him hitting every perfect spot.

He took one of your legs, onto his shoulder, making him go deeper into you, making you a moaning mess. He then took his glove off, by teeth and started rubbing your clit, building another orgasm inside you. “Already another orgasm pet? You have to beg for this one a lot harder sweetheart” he said rubbing your clit harder and slamming harder into you. “P-please sir please let me c-cum, I’ll do anything, please let me cum, please” you begged in between moans. “Tell me how good I make you feel” Heisenberg same slamming into you faster, watching your face curl into pleasure. “You make me feel so good sir, please haah your dick makes me feel so good sir, you are so good sir” you said with tears in the corner of your eyes.

“Good girl, so fuckin good for me and only me” slamming hard into you, your legs trembling nearing your orgasm. “Karl I’m about to-“ you slightly screamed, but Heisenberg stopped you by wrapping his hand around your neck, his other hand still rubbing your clit, making you cum hard on his dick, squeezing him, making him go harder, chasing his own orgasm moaning fuck and your so fuckin tight. And then he slammed one more time, spilling his seed deep inside you, filling you up. After that intense orgasm, Karl fell on top of you trying to support his weight with his hands on each side of your head. He let you go off the metal scraps, and you put one hand in his hair and the other on his shoulder. “Fuck, I should’ve done this sooner, don’t ya think?” He asked slightly laughing. “You should have, but better now than never” you said and with that he lowered down to give you a soft passionate kiss, making you melt right under him.

“You should go home kitten.. you can maybe stay a bit longer next time” he mumbled softly, not wanting to let you go, but also not wanting you to get in trouble and hurt. “I should” you said getting up, cleaning up and dressing up. He just put on his trousers and belt and watched you while lighting a cigar in his mouth. You were about to head out until Karl took your wrist and kissed you a goodbye kiss. “I’ll see you again kitten” he said with a grin letting you go and opening the door for you. “Next time then. Bye bye” you said and he just waved. What a crazy day you told yourself walking home aching but happy.

[kamenriderlogik27]

Kamen Rider headcanons part 1: Saber meets Ex-Aid!

I've been thinking about this for a while. Not sure why my brain chose Ex-Aid though. Just kinda happened. hehe. It took me a lot longer to write than I was hoping 'cause I ended up getting writer's block somewhere near the end, and didn't entirely know how to end it. Not much action either since I can't write action scenes, but hopefully ya'll will like it!

- It was a bright, sunny day with no sign of megido activity. Touma and Mei were traveling to Tokyo due to Touma having a book reading scheduled at Seito University Hospital. Rintaro, intrigued by the idea of finally being able to visit a grand medical institution, decided to tag along under the guise that it'd be better for him to go as backup just in case something happened.

- Upon arrival, the trio run into Ogami and his son, Sora. Who the latter is scheduled an annual check up at the hospital and was following a nurse.

- After hearing about Touma's book reading, Sora begged Ogami to let him stay so he could join them. Ogami gave no hesitation in giving his son permission to stay after his check up. This actually played in Ogami's favor 'cause he had something to do down the street (probably to get bakery sweets for his son and wife or something.) So he asked Rintaro and Mei to help Sora with his check up, and left before hearing their response.

- A bit dumbfounded but not surprised, Mei quickly told Touma to check in at the front so a nurse could escort him to set up, then she and Rintaro both took Sora's hands and followed the (surprisingly patient) nurse to their assigned hospital room.

- On their way to the room, the nurse quickly stopped near a scale, asked Sora to take off his shoes and started taking his height and weight measurements. Mei had to stop Rintaro from taking off his second shoe (he already had the first one off) as he thought that they all had to get their measurements taken.

- As they waited for the doctor to come, Mei and Sora talked and played while Rintaro took his time looking around the room at all the different equipment and posters with fascinated eyes.

- It wasn't long a wait. However, as the doctor opened the door to enter, he accidentally (somehow) tripped and face planted the floor.

- *Que overly shocked and confused Mei face and sounds, and an unimpressed Sora*

- Rintaro was the only one who asked if the doctor was ok and if he needed help. This caused the doctor to inwardly blush in shame a bit.

- The doctor (if you couldn't tell by now) is Hojo Emu, as said by the patient nurse who sighed "Not again, Emu...."

- Sora took a quick liking to doctor Emu as he was really nice and tried to make the check up feel like a game. However, Emu was a bit shocked to say the least when he tried to bond with Sora over video games and Sora said that he likes reading more. (score one for Touma!)

- As the check up went on, Emu ended up having to juggle with doing his job as well as try to answer the many questions that Rintaro had. (i.e. Is that a stethoscope?! How clear are you able to hear a heartbeat with it? May I perhaps try it out myself? Do doctors really keep a jar of tongue depressors at their desk? That's amazing! you can also use a stethoscope to hear a person's breathing pattern? etc.)

- After the check up, Emu told Mei and Rintaro that Sora was in extraordinary health, especially for such a young child. (score one for the best Kamen Rider dad!)

- Since Emu had no more scheduled appointments for the next hour or two, he and nurse Asuna both ended up escorting the three to the book reading. They were also really curious as to who this 'Touma' person was that Sora and Mei talked excitedly about.

- The book reading was held in a wide open area outside in the courtyard, right next to a huge wall made of windows. Touma had brought a total of 10 picture books to read to his audience; which consisted of mainly hospitalized children, and Sora sitting in the front row.

- Emu and nurse Asuna were both, to say the least, really impressed with Touma's reading skills and interactions with the children. To them, it almost seemed as if Touma was truly taking them on a magic carpet ride or journeying through the decade a jungle.

- Emu mumbled something about looking up Touma's books one of these days, which Mei over heard of course, giving her the opportunity of handing him Touma's business card which had the bookstore's phone number and address printed on the back.

- Just as Touma is about to finish his last book, screams are heard coming from nearby and Mei's white book starts glowing. Nurse Asuna is the only one that notices the book however since Emu is already running towards the chaos, Rintaro and Touma hot on his heels. Nurse Asuna has so many questions, but Mei just awkwardly smiles and runs to Sora so they can help the children and other patients back inside.

- Once Emu gets to the source of the screams, he finds a huge, bug-like monster with a book on its chest attacking people with its long, blood-sucking spear. Emu gets confused at what he was looking at since the monster didn't look or seem like a bugster. Before he could observe further, Touma and Rintaro rushed past him, both putting on their drivers and shouting "Henshin!" before swinging out what seemed like swords and transforming.

- although super confused at these two new Riders, Emu decided to wait to ask questions and jumped into action himself by pulling out his gashats and gamedriver, wanting to transform into Kamen Rider Ex-aid level 2. However, upon further observation of the scene, he could see people kneeling/laying on the ground, groaning in agony and pain. He would have to rely on the strange Riders for the moment as Doctor Emu was needed, Genius Gamer M would have to wait.

- the two SOL Riders noticed the Doctor by now, with Rintaro gasping and trying to tell Emu to get away before he gets hurt. This attracted the megido's attention and it quickly brushed off the Rider's swords, jumped high into the air and aimed it's spear at the doctor who was now trying to help a poor old lady to stand up.

- Before it could hit the doctor though, a very large, heavy sword blocked it's path causing the megido to fall back, clutching it's spear-nose in pain. Emu looked at the huge sword in shock, before glancing at the wielder next to to. Which happened to be an untransformed man with a smirk on his face.

- "Ogami-san! Nice save!" Touma yelled with relief.

"Huh? OGAMI???" Emu said to himself, putting the pieces together "Eh??? Sora-kun's FATHER?!" Noticing that the man he saved was a doctor, due to Emu's white coat, Ogami-san understood what was going on and told Emu to keep doing what he was doing. "Don't worry, I've got your back!"

- While Emu depended on Ogami-san to protect him and the patients, the other Rider doctors had came to help. Kiriya was helping anyone that could still walk, Taiga and Nico were attending to those that couldn't, and Hiiro took the chance to look into and see if the bugster virus was related.

- The megido took account of the situation and, seeing as he could continue his job else where, started to fly away. But not before seeing a curious Sora staring right at him and deciding that "one more couldn't hurt." and dove down to the boy. But before it could pierce Sora's skin, a frantic Mei pushed him out of the way, getting pierced by the megido's spear in the process.

- I think ya'll can imagine the way Touma and, especially, Rintaro screamed Mei's name right at the moment. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

- The megido quickly flew away before the riders could reach them. But Rintaro quickly de-henshined and rushed to Mei's side, quickly, but as gently as possible, picking her up in his arms and checking to see if she was alright. On the outside she seemed fine, there wasn't even an open wound, but then an electric-like ripple coursed through her body and she gasped in pain. Hiiro was at their sides in an instant, using his Game Scope to assess the situation.

- Emu, who was checking to see if Sora was alright, quickly squatted next to Hiiro and furrowed his brows at the screen. there was a new type of Bugster running through Mei's body. In fact, everyone that was attacked by the megido had been infected.

- They took Mei back to the hospital (Rintaro carrying her with the excuse that it'd be faster for him to do it, when in fact he just didn't want anyone else to carry her.) and set her down in the Ex-aid HQ center (I know it's officially called something else, but I'm tired and have no time to look it up at the moment.)

- Now Emu's a bit overwhelmed 'cause there's a very sick Mei, 2 very worried riders asking questions, another rider who's also a bit worried but is also trying to calm his heart down after getting the scare of his life when Poppy suddenly costume changed next to him without warning, and everyone is just super confused about what the monster is. He literally has to yell "shut up!!!" for the room to quiet down enough so he can add "How about we just take turns asking questions, yeah?"

- and that's what they do, Emu starts by asking Touma and Rintaro what the monster is. So Rintaro quickly explains the SOL organization, swordsmen and the megido. Then Rintaro asks Emu what's happening to Mei and if she'll be ok. Emu, along with the other doctor Riders, started explaining Bugsters and the Game Disease. Emu explained that since they've been battling the virus for years now, and have advanced the treatment extraordinarily well that Emu is confident that they'll be able to heal Mei.

- Even though still worried, Rintaro and Touma visibly relax, the latter starting to think about the megido. He had a suspicion of what the megido could be and wanted to go back to the bookstore to check. Knowing it'd be a long drive back however, Ogami quickly pulled out his book-gate WRB and created a doorway that links the hospital to the Northern Base. Touma and Rintaro head through it without a second thought, shocking the doctor Riders.

- At the Northern Base, the duo find Daishinji who's been trying to track the megido for some time now. As they talk, Daishinji cuts off what he's saying halfway and adverts his eyes due to the doctor Riders suddenly appearing.

- Turns out that Parado had come back after playing games with some of the children in the hospital, saw the doctor Riders staring at a door that he'd never seen before. curious, he opened the door (despite Ogami yelling and Emu trying to stop him) which resulted in him and Emu getting sucked into the vortex-like path between the destinations. The other riders too as they either tried to save the duo or they got pulled in by others *cough!* Kiriya *cough!* trying to save themselves.

- The doctor Riders suddenly finding themselves to be in a library of sorts makes them shocked to say the least.

- By the time Ogami catches up, Rintaro is busy explaining that they're now at the North Pole while Touma has gone off back to his bookstore to look for a specific book.

- Emu had followed after Touma and was amazed by how homey and comfortable the bookstore felt and looked.

- As Emu looked around the bookstore (low-key spazzing about how cool the diorama was), Touma rummaged through a pile of books until he came across a book on insects. He skims through it and confirms that the bug-like megido is a mosquito, which is known to spread viruses like wildfire. Excited, the two go back and inform the others at the Northern Base of what they found.

- Everyone then spends the night doing what they can to help. Ogami found and dragged Ren out to help him look for the megido with Kiriya and Parado offering to help. Parado's involvement caused Nico to see this as a game, so she forced Taiga to help search as well. Hiiro went back to his other patients, checking in every now and then to see if the Bugster in Mei had grown.

- Touma and Rintaro also thought about searching, but then Emu and Poppy mentioned how the Bugster Virus reacts and grows via stress. What stresses Mei the most is 1. Touma not finishing his drafts on time and 2. not seeing her friends. So they decided to stay by her side with Rintaro watching over her, and Touma taking up the nearby desk so he can work on drafts for the next two+ months.

- Seeing Mei so pale and frail broke Rintaro's heart. She looked like a different person entirely, as if her warm smile had been stolen. Somewhat tired and worry clouding his mind, he started speaking his thoughts out loud, so loud that Touma could hear.

- "Why can't I do anything?" "What if we can't defeat the megido?" "What if we DO defeat the megido but can't defeat the virus?"

- Touma has to firmly tell Rintaro that they will save Mei, no matter what. He's so adamant about it that he ends up promising Rintaro that they'll both defeat both the Bugster and the megido.

- Emu, who was observing them from afar, takes note of their promise before heading up to the main office of the ward. There, a new face, Kento, is standing next to the window and gazing down at the trio.

- Alarmed, Emu asks who Kento is and how he got in. But Kento doesn't reply, and instead mentions how this wasn't supposed to happen, that this wasn't something he foresaw. He looks back at Emu before opening a black portal and disappearing through it.

- Sometime during the night, Hiiro checks in on Mei, and has a chat with Rintaro about her. He warns the swordsman about waiting and not taking action before leaving him to his thoughts.

- The next morning, Emu finds Touma and Rintaro both asleep. The latter hunched over the desk full of written drafts and the former upright in a chair with his hand clenching Mei's. Poppy, who had came in right behind him, loudly gasped in delight at the cute scene, causing the two Riders to wake up in alarm. Touma ended up falling from his chair while Rintaro awkwardly jumped with embarrassment after realizing he was holding Mei's hand, especially so tightly.

- Emu checks Mei's temperature and vitals. When she wakes up, he asks her how she feels which she groggily explains that she feels way better than when she was turned into the cat megido. Turns out that the boys staying with her and seeing that Touma got a lot of work done really did help in de-stressing her.

- Just then, they get a call from Ogami, informing them that the megido has been spotted. Quickly reassuring Mei that they'll defeat the Megido, the two left to aid Ogami.

-Them leaving however, caused Mei to grow worried and stressed. Resulting in the Bugster Virus inside of her to grow and finally form outside of her body. The form that the Bugster took, was of her Megido monster form, the cat megido. Which slashed at Emu and Poppy before fleeing from the hospital.

- Emu and the other doctor Riders chased after it, bumping into the SOL Riders on the way. This results in them fighting together AND having the SOL Riders react to seeing the doctor Riders transform for the first time.

- "eh?! you guys are Kamen Riders too?!" "What?! B-but! I thought that only SOL swordsmen can be called 'Kamen Riders'?! I have to ask Sophia-sama about this..." "Oi.... What's with the cartoon eyes...? and... is that HAIR?"

- They also run into more bugsters as well, so they break up into teams to fight them off. Touma and Emu vs the megido, Rintaro and Hiiro vs the cat megido bugster, Kiriya and Ogami vs. a megido bugster, and Taiga and Nico vs. another megido bugster and Ren and Parado vs Bugster mooks.

- After defeating them all, the one behind this mess reveals himself; Dan Kuroto with one of Zoous's Alter Ride Books. (possibly given to him by Storious)

-This leads to another huge battle between Kuroto (who fused with the alter ride book) and the Riders (plus Kento who'd been watching the whole thing), which ends with Kuroto being defeated and disappearing, and Mei with everyone else that caught the megido bugster virus to be fully cured.

- Mei reunites with Touma and Rintaro at the hospital, which Rintaro smiling to himself. (He now fully realizes his feelings for Mei and is planning on confessing soon.)

-Later on, Emu, Poppy and the other doctor Riders visit the Kamiyama bookstore, which results in an amusing event.

[thevioletjones]

48. “You make me want things I can’t have.” 💜

Thanks for the inspiration! 💜

Prompt 3

Buffer

Ian Gallagher was starting to become a problem.

And the worst part about it was that he wasn’t even a problem that Mickey wanted to resolve. No. He just kept holding Ian closer and refusing to push him away like he should. He was just letting him ruin Mickey’s mediocre life. Because something about Ian was unshakeable. It wasn’t just that Ian kept coming back no matter what Mickey ever said or did, either. Ian was definitely persistent, but Mickey had formed an attachment too, even though he did everything in his power to hide it. It was still there, buried under layers of caustic remarks, aloof expressions, and occasional lashing out. He wasn’t proud of his behavior, but it was just who he was, and remaining unchanged in his ways was easier than the alternative.

Ian was definitely too good for him. Sure, he was hood trash too, but they were on two different levels. Ian was buffed up with a certain surface shine that Mickey lacked. Although, he would admit he’d come a long way in his style and hygiene game since his early days as an unwashed miscreant. Mickey was a gay man after all, and not immune to gaying certain things up, despite his tendency to flout homo conventions. If he wanted the ability to get a decent dick in his ass, there were standards that he’d learned to push himself to meet. This was the glossiest Mickey was ever gonna get, and it still came with a pinch of grime and hostility.

Maybe he’d developed enough sense to give a fuck, but he still didn’t give two shits either; a concept that walking contradictions the world over could likely comprehend.

The thing about Gallagher was that he was sweet. Not in an annoying, cloying, obvious way that was anathema to everything Mickey was about, but in a low-key, casual, incidental kind of way that somehow managed to be attractive, even to someone with Mickey’s abrasive nature. Ian played tough, and he genuinely was in many ways, but he had a gooey, marshmallow center that evened him out. Mickey didn’t see himself as having that sort of balance.

But there were these unsettling moments like this, usually in the middle of the night or early in the morning, when Mickey would catch himself watching Ian unawares. Unawares because he only ever did it when the redhead was deep in sleep. Suddenly, Mickey would be Mr. Contemplation, burning a hole into the face of the dude he was banging, daring to wonder what could happen between them if he wasn’t an emotionally stunted asshole. And then he’d reflect on what Ian’s life was like whenever he wasn’t around; the things Mickey acted like he didn’t care to know.

These circular thought patterns never led anywhere good, because at the end of the day, Ian wasn’t his. And Mickey could never be Ian’s. He’d long ago resigned himself to a certain destiny that involved long-term solitude until his dying day, which he’d always been fairly certain would come prematurely and most likely in violent fashion. It would be ridiculous to drag someone else into his vortex of apathy for life and the general traditions of living it. Especially someone like Ian, who was good; who helped people because he genuinely cared about, like, the well-being of humanity and shit. Despite the occasional soft look or revelatory comment that Ian would throw his way, he knew better than to think he’d want to be saddled with Mickey’s non-reciprocating ogre-y ass.

Usually when one of these intense, one-sided staring sessions would take place, Mickey would overcompensate for silently slipping by adding an extra dose of rudeness when he kicked Ian out after the fact. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why Gallagher still bothered with him. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get laid elsewhere. Ian was the type that would never have trouble finding a willing ass. Yet somehow he kept coming back to Mickey and ignoring all the negatives thrown in his path. It didn’t make much sense on either of their parts… allowing each other in on any terms. Probably meant that Ian was just as fucked up as he was, really.

Blowing out the last hit off his smoke, Mickey glanced at the bedside clock and stubbed out the cigarette butt. 3:26 AM and he was wide awake, just gawking at his slumbering ginger fuck buddy, and trying to repress the multitude of emotions swirling within him. It was truly pathetic.

He could just get the hell up and drag his ass to the living room to play video games or watch late-night TV, but no. Apparently he liked suffering and feeling conflicted. What a pussy.

Not ten minutes went by before there was slow movement from the other side of the bed... Ian turning over in his sleep, reaching an arm out, and searching. Searching for the warmth of Mickey’s body, it would seem.

A big hand landed on his thigh, rubbing it softly as tired eyes blinked open, and a groggy voice sounded, “What’re’y’doin’?”

Oh, just fuckin’ lying here starin’ at your pasty ass for some reason. “Can’t sleep.”

“Didn’t wear you out?” Ian asked with a breathy titter, squeezing the sensitive flesh precariously close to Mickey’s groin.

Maybe it made his dick twitch a little.

“When did one round ever wear me out?”

“Pretty sure there were two rounds. Did you forget about the couch?”

“Random handies while watchin’ mediocre porn barely counts as a round, carrot-top.”

“A, it wasn’t that mediocre, and B, do you only consider it sex if penetration is involved?”

“I mean… it helps.”

“What about blowjobs, then? How would you classify them?”

“Sex act, but not sex, sex. Know what I mean?”

Ian laughed. “Not really. What about lesbians?”

“Definitely don’t wanna have my cock anywhere near those.”

“Har har. I mean, what would you call lesbian sex?”

“Gross? Boring? I don’t fuckin’ know. Never had it, don’t plan to.”

Ian laughed harder and it made Mickey feel good. “Pretty sure lesbians don’t want fuck all to do with you either, bottom boy.”

“Hey, likin’ what I like don’t make me a bitch.”

“No, but you seem pretty hostile toward anything but a real live human cock poking you in the asshole. I mean, naysaying getting your dick sucked? That’s a bold bossy bottom stance to take.”

“What can I say? I’m a simple man with simple kinks. Aren’t you glad I don’t need any freaky extra shit to get me off?”

“What kinda freaky extras are we talkin’?”

“Fuck off, Gallagher. Don’t act like you don’t just live for stickin’ that big red dick inside any tight manhole that’ll accommodate it. Does that make you a hungry top just begging for it?”

“I prefer ‘brutal top,’ since it’s so big, as you were so kind to mention.”

Mickey rolled his eyes into tomorrow. “Gotta remember to stop accidentally complimenting it. You get so fuckin’ uppity about it.”

Ian rolled over and boxed him in, nuzzling around his face and neck, while Mickey tried to bat him away.

“Come on,” prodded Ian. “Big hard cock seeks tight little hole for another round of deep penetration.”

Mickey could feel said big hard cock firming right up against his hip. “Ixnay on the cutesy man seeking man dirty talk, fuckhead. I will make you take that hulking boner elsewhere.”

“No you won’t,” Ian replied, humping down against him.

Of course he wouldn’t, but he had to front at least a little bit. That was the nature of his inner beast.

While they were fucking, Mickey could just let himself get lost in all the appropriate heightened sensations that really good sex immersed him in. Immersed him and Ian in. Ian and him. Them. Reveling in the pleasure of carnality was totally kosher… as long as it limited him from basking in that additional Ian stuff. That feelings stuff that he had no idea what to do with. That unfathomable connection that existed between them.

He let Ian kiss him a lot too. Like, a lot, a lot. That wasn’t customary for him with other dudes. In fact, it barely ever happened. It was just another habit Ian had slipped under the wire to form with him when he wasn’t paying enough attention. Mickey was pretty sure he’d kissed more girls in his life than boys, because that was always an easy, less disgusting way to publicly appear straight during the years he’d spent in the closet. With guys, there was nothing to prove and everything to hide, so it just wasn’t something he incorporated into his casual sex routine.

Before Ian, he hadn’t exactly attracted the kind of dudes that warranted sticking around for in any capacity, or who made any kind of effort to stick with him. There were never any near-miss boyfriends, or pine-worthy hookups. Sex was always transactional and he’d been perfectly fine with that arrangement.

The truth was that once he’d fucked up and invited Ian in for repeats over and over again, he started to figure out that the sex just kept getting hotter and hotter. That when two bodies really took the time to get to know each other, things fit better, motions got smoother, and orgasms got a thousand times stronger. Turned out that one-night-stands were not where the fuck it was at. Those were always crapshoots with odds that were at best 25/75 in favor of mediocrity. With Ian, it was guaranteed total fulfillment 100% of the time.

That was the only explanation he could find for this unexpected addiction he was stuck with. An addiction to Ian and his stupidly perfect cock. The rest of his body was alright too. And when he spoke, he wasn’t completely fucking annoying. His personality and his nature were tolerable. Mickey didn’t want to gouge his eyes out every time he got sucked into a conversation.

They didn’t really hang out, though. Outside of the bedroom, that is. It was like the whole game changed when they were in bed. They could fuck, they could goof around and have a laugh, they could wrestle, they could accidentally say something profound once in a while… but if Ian had a bag of food when he dropped by, Mickey wasn’t about to sit on the couch and watch TV with him while he ate it, and he definitely wasn’t going to accept a portion for himself.

Until tonight, that is. Or last night, or however the fuck time was identified when you were a natural night owl.

Tonight, they’d crossed another invisible line in the sand, and Mickey had found himself chowing down on tacos, while heckling some shitty 90s action film; his part-time lover chuckling next to him with a sloppy mouth.

It was fucking terrifying.

So as soon as he’d realized what was actually happening, and how much he didn’t hate it, Mickey had switched over to some hardcore porn. They’d cracked jokes about it at first, but it’d done the trick of quickly leading to the familiar comfort of sexual gratification. With that justification, Mickey could just sweep the whole ‘watching a movie and eating together like they were on a date’ thing under the proverbial rug without further examination.

At least until Ian had fallen asleep around 2 AM. Then it was dwell city.

By 4:30 AM, Ian had fucked him into the mattress once again, and promptly fallen back asleep without a care in the world. Mickey was more than sated, but felt even more awake than he had an hour ago, his brain full of fresh bullshit about the man next to him and what was happening between them.

He opened his bedside drawer and pulled out his stash, knowing the high would fog up his brain enough to go off on thought tangents, and eventually shut down for at least five hours. Within ten minutes, he felt a little better, or at least more distracted. He was still very aware of Ian’s looming presence in the darkness, though. He wanted to be comforted by it, but he just couldn’t relax.

There’d always been a buffer between them, which Mickey had been diligent in maintaining, and he could see it slowly falling away now. If he didn’t step up and push back, pretty soon there’d be no barrier left standing. Who the fuck knew what could happen then.

He hated it. He felt so fucking out of control, when it should be the easiest thing in the world to control. All he had to do was break it off. He knew exactly what to say and do to make that happen. Knew enough to be able to really hit Ian where it hurt, both literally and figuratively.

But goddamn it, he didn’t want to.

He didn’t want to make Ian sad, and he didn’t want to give into his own desire to try for more. He would always fuck it up, because he was a fuck-up by nature. His goddamn knuckles spelled it all out in block letters.

He wanted Ian, but he didn’t want the responsibility. Didn’t trust himself, because no one had ever trusted him before in his entire life. What kind of dumbass wanted that kind of damaged douchebag for a boyfriend? No sane one.

Against his better judgment, Mickey rolled closer to Ian and wrapped an arm around his middle, spooning him the way he secretly liked it when Ian spooned him. He held him close and breathed in his scent.

“You make me want things I can’t have,” he murmured to himself, exhaling heavily against Ian’s neck.

He fell asleep swiftly, and in the morning, he didn’t ask Ian to leave.

[gh0stiegirlie]

Shitty Cooking — Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

Synopsis: You’re terribly shit at cooking; So bad, that you’re banned from cooking at U.A. all together. And when Bakugou sees your pathetic attempt to cook ramen one night, he can’t help but intervene.

Length: 4.8k words

A/n: Oop-- I’m aware I’m working on a series rn, but this idea popped in my head and was too cute not to write!

You know you’re not a great cook, but you weren’t aware you were ‘fill the dorms with smoke and set off all the fire alarms un U.A.’ type bad until hundreds of kids were soaring down the halls (some recklessly using their the quirks to literally soar through the air) towards an exit. 

“Oh shit,” you whisper, struck with total astonishment of the chaos surrounding you; and fearing the consequences for instigating it. “I’m fucked.”

“Y/n, what are you doing? Come here!” Iida calls from behind you. He clears his throat before bellowing, “Everyone from Class 1-A, this is your class rep. Come line up in an orderly fashion to exit the building!” With a groan you jog over to Iida, some boys sluggishly falling in line behind you.

Before Iida guides your class down the stairs, the fire alarms cut off.

“Huh. Must’ve been a false alarm.” Kirishima says.

“I feel bad for whatever sorry bastard pulled that alarm.” Katsuki Bakugou grumbles from behind you. 

“Yeah! Aizawa is probably going to expel them!” Kirishima agrees. You pull at the neck of your uniform, suddenly feeling feverish. Mr. Aizawa wouldn’t expel you for something this stupidly accidental… Right?

“You know, I hope he does! I’m pissed off too! I was in the middle of charging up my--” Kaminari is cut off my Kirishima elbowing him in the stomach.

“No one wants to know, bro. Trust me.” 

“Alright, class 1-A,” Aizawa announces as he enters the room. He’s dressed in his usual all-black attire, but the purple bags under his eyes and disheveled hair implies he’s more exhausted than usual. “Since-- for some reason --this class is involved in everything bad that happens to this school, I assume it was one of you that pulled that false alarm, either as a mindless prank or on accident. Either way, it woke me up from my nap.” With hands folded neatly behind his back, he patiently paces in front of you and your lined up classmates. In his black, formless drapes, he looks like a demon hovering around the room, waiting to select the poor soul he’ll drag down to hell. Or in this case, the principal’s office. “Tell me who pulled the alarm or you will all be expelled.”

The class erupts in a chorus of whines, but you remain silent.

“Well, who was near a fire alarm?” Tsuyu asks, tapping her chin with her forefinger.

“Bakugou and I were playing video games together!” Kirishima announces, wrapping an arm proudly around his friend.

 “Get. Off. of me.” Bakugou snarls.

“Uhh-O-Oh! It could’ve been me! The weights in the gym are close to the fire alarm… I could’ve accidentally pulled it!” Deku confesses, having an unfortunate tendency to blame himself for everything. Uraraka gently places a hand on his shoulder.

“It wasn’t you,” she assures him. 

“The smoke was spilling from this area. Was someone in the kitchen?” Aizawa deadpans, strolling over to the students to briefly analyze them. When he walks past you, you stiffen. You wince at your foolishness and dart your eyes to the ground, hoping he didn’t notice. He stops to face you. “Where were you, Y/n?”

Shit.

“Huh. Now that I think about it, I did see Y/n in the kitchen when the fire alarms went off!” Iida boldly states. He gasps and points a finger at you. “Y/n, it was you!

Bitch!

 Aizawa sighs, turning towards the dorm exit. “Y/n, you’re banned from using the kitchen. Forever. To ensure you don’t wake me from a nap again.”

You bury your face in your hands to hide your embarrassment, but that doesn’t stop the class from laughing at your expense.

“Heyyy, don’t look so down! I can cook for you for now on!” Mina exclaims, excitedly shaking your arm.

You pry away her grip from your arm. “I’d prefer to survive on vending machine snacks,” you insist before storming off to your dorm.

It’s late at night when your stomach begins to growl. You stroll over to your snack cabinet, only to gasp in horror when it’s empty. Your stomach begs for food. 

You know what you have to do.

At 11 pm, you stick your head out of your door. All the lights in the hall are off, though the full moon illuminates the hallway by shining through the windows. The only sound on the entire floor is the faint squeaks the ground emits as you tiptoe to the commons. 

Normally, the common area is alive with students of all ages dining and socializing. The room now lays completely still, and witnessing its desolation in the dead of night is eerie. But more importantly, the kitchen appears undisturbed.  

You strategically plan your path to the kitchen, knowing the area between the commons and kitchen holds the creakiest floorboards in the dorms. After planning your route you advance, only hopping on one floorboard that cries out. 

You pump your fists when you make it to the cabinets, satisfied with your success.

You grab a pot and place it under the sink, keeping the water dripping at its lowest setting slowly until its full, not wanting to risk waking anyone. Then, you grab two eggs and carefully drop them into the water. As soon as you turn on the stove to boil the eggs, the liquid begins to bubble and pop, shooting scaling droplets in your direction. Immediately following this, smoke rises from the pot. 

“Not again! How does this keep happening?!” you whisper cry, covering your eyes with your hands and shaking your head vehemently. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” You peek through your fingers at the flames and try to think about how you can solve this. 

But apparently, you don’t have too. Someone pushes you out of the way and turns off the stove, before swiftly dumping the contents of the pot into the sink. And just like that, the fire is out. And you’re saved.

When the smoke clears and you turn to thank the prince who rescued you, your eyes widen. 

 Fuck.

Katsuki Bakugou’s blood-red eyes dig into your heart like two sharp knives. He holds his hands in a defensive stance, preparing to shoot explosions at you. For being your ‘prince’, he’s acting more like an angry troll.

It’s been two weeks. There’s no way he’ll remember you’re banned from cooking, right?

“What the hell where you doing!” he whisper yells. “Aren’t you the bastard whos banned from cooking because you almost burnt down the damn school?”

“Uhh…” 

You try to think of something clever. 

“No…?”

Bakugou leans against the sink and folds his arms. The same eyes that once glared daggers into you now look your body up and down. You suddenly feel embarrassed for only wearing a long t-shirt with tight mini shorts. You tug at your shirt self-consciously. 

“You’re more of an idiot than I thought, huh?” he scoffs, digging around the cabinets for another pot. “What were you trying to make.” He doesn’t model it as a question, instead poses it as an annoyed statement. Like he is now in debt to assist you, even though he’s the one who saved you.

You don’t reply, finding yourself at a loss for words. Bakugou points the new pot at you accusingly. “Well?” he snaps.

“Well-- I, uh--” you start, swallowing hard before continuing, “I was trying to make spicy ramen with soft boiled eggs.” You explain while fiddling with your fingers. You don’t know why, but you find it difficult to make eye contact with the boy while he’s wearing a fitted tank. His biceps bulge out of the tight top, exhibiting the strength that’s normally kept hidden under a loose uniform top. You desire to devour him over any ramen. But this is Katuski fucking Bakugou, so you try desperately to keep your eyes at bay by distracting them with your twiddling hands. 

Bakugou laughs. You know he’s merely humored by how pathetic you are, and is probably thinking about how much better he is than you simply because he can cook(any win is a win for Bakugou), but it sends butterflies fluttering around your stomach none the less. 

“I’ve been able to make that since compulsory school. You’re just a dumbass.” he brags, grabbing two more eggs and throwing them into the flooded pot. You ignore his attitude to instead focus on the dripping container.

“Hey, isn’t that a bit too much--”

“Do you want my help or not?” he growls, and you decide not to question is methods. He switches on the stove. “What’s the recipe?”

You hand him your phone. As he scans the recipe, you can’t help but study the way his lips move around the words he mumbles to himself. Every action he makes is always so big, and brash and aggressive, that watching his lips calmly form breathless words is alluring.

“...scallions, togarashi, and nori.” he finishes, before setting your phone down on the counter and turning towards you. You switch your attention from his rosy lips to his vermillion eyes. “Now, I can trust you to grab the ginger, miso, and sambal oelek, right?” he teases. “I would ask you to grab the soy sauce and vinegar, but I’m not sure if you can tell the two apart.” he continues taunting you, but as embarrassed as you are, you enjoy this friendly banter. “I don’t know if you even know what sesame oil is.” 

You roll your eyes and mumble “I do know the difference…”, but leave out the fact that you really don’t know what sesame oil is. 

You push yourself onto the tips of your toes to reach for the cabinet, leaning your core against the counter for extra support. As you stretch to reach your ingredients, your oversized t-shirt hitches up your thighs and exposes the tight athletic shorts underneath. Bakugou doesn’t let the sight distract him from collecting the oils, but takes a brief moment to appreciate it.

Once you’ve snatched the ingredients off the shelves, you proudly display them to Bakugou. His approving grunt leaves you feeling accomplished.

“Now go over there,” he juts his chin out near the pot, “I’ll start cutting the scallions, onions, and nori while you sauce the pan.”

You grab the pan and head over a separate portion of the counter to sauce it, avoiding the stove at all costs. After a few minutes you look over at Bakugou, who is vehemently slicing through vegetables in a way that impresses you as much as it terrifies you. You make sure to note Bakugou is frighteningly excellent with a kitchen knife, and to avoid pissing him off whenever he’s in the kitchen. 

Bakugou gestures for you to accompany him at the stove, to which you obey without thought. The warmth of his body involuntarily draws you to him. You’re like a moth to a flame.

Bakugou takes the pot with the boiled eggs off the stove so you can replace it with the sauced pan. His bicep rubs against your shoulder as he pours the sliced veggies into the pan, heating your whole arm. You want to feel his heat in your hand, on your thighs, on your lips--

Bakugou distracts you from your thoughts once he pulls away. “I’ll boil the noodles and cut the eggs. Grab the sauces.” 

You nod and rotate back to the cabinets, where once again you strain yourself to reach the condiments on the high shelf, your shirt hikes up your ass, and Bakugou briefly (though for a bit longer this time) enjoys the view. 

By the time you’re done grabbing the herbs, Bakugou has completed his task. He debates asking you to grab the bowls, yearning to see your ass in those tight shorts one last time, but decides he’s objectified you enough for one night and grabs them himself. 

“The recipe says to wait ten minutes,” he informs you, leaning against the countertop. You hop up on the kitchen island and begin to swing your legs. Bakugou’s eyes nonchalantly eat up the sight of your bare thighs, storing the way they look for later. 

Bakugou crosses his arms and clicks his tongue before asking, “How are you so bad at cooking?” he furrows his brows with a huff. “I know you’re not a complete idiot-- you placed one below me on the final. So how are you so stupid?”

You shrug. “I dunno. I’ve never really been interested in cooking.” You bashfully pull your eyes away from his to gaze up at the ceiling. (even though you can’t see anything). “There are so many more interesting things I can do than learn how to cook.”

“So you’re going to be a pro-hero who can kick villain ass, but lose a fight to a damn hard-boiled egg? That’s pathetic!” 

A hysterical laugh escapes your lips, and you quickly slap your hand over your mouth to muffle the sound. Your other hand tightly grips the edge of the table as you rock back and forth. 

Hell yeah, he got you to laugh. The corners of Bakugous mouth twitch into a smile, to which he immediately curves into a smirk. But he can’t hide the faint blush on his cheeks.

“Shut up, dumbass. People are sleeping,” he moves closer to you so he can playfully hit your frantically kicking legs. This time, he can’t help it when his smirk turns into a smile.

“I’m---Sorry---” you spit out between chuckles, “It’s just--- so true.”

After a few more minutes of increasingly angry shushes from Bakugou, you calm down.

“Wow Bakugou, I didn’t know you were funny,” you tease.

“What do you mean?! I’m hilarious!” he fumes, making you break out into laughter again.

“Now you’re the one who needs to chill.” You playfully shove his arm. But your hand lingers on his toned bicep a little too long, leaving a dusty blush on your cheeks when you pull away. “Honestly, you are funny. Just your anger kinda intimidates people to the point they’re too scared to laugh.” 

Bakugou tries to hide how tense he is by puffing out his chest under his crossed arms while bellowing “Good! They should be scared!” He’s always himself around extra’s because he doesn’t care what they think. He just wants them to recognize he’s better than them, and they all do. But you’re… Not like the other extra’s. When others look at him, waves of heat wash over his body, which eventually turns into red hot anger. But every time your doe eyes meet his, his face grows hot and he feels far from angry. He doesn’t want to yell at you, he wants to have a genuine conversation. Then when he initiates, he starts overthinking everything he says and does. Did he say something dumb? Did he hurt your feelings? Did he look good? Maybe he should’ve brushed his hair today-- 

You brush a stray hair behind your ear, fluttering your eyelashes at the boy. Your e/c eyes twinkle under the moonlight in a way that makes Bakugou stomach do backflips. He could give less of a damn bout the ramen. Because right now, he’s hungry for you.

As if destined to ruin the only emotional connection Bakugou has ever felt, the timer dings. 

Bakugou grabs a set of tongs and puts two servings of noodles into his bowl, and gives you one.

“How come I get less?” you sulk as he pours the sauce/veggie mixture on top of your noodles. 

“Because you weren’t the one working out for five hours!” he snaps out his emotionally authentic state to explain this in his infamously aggressive tone. Emotions are for simps desperate to get their dick wet, and he’s a fucking badass with ambition. He doesn’t have time for that shit. He sprinkles togarashi on the noodles for a final spicy touch. “I was actually doing shit while you and all the other sissies were in bed.”

You watch him walk away in disappointment. You had grown hopeful there was a spark between you two. That maybe he’d made you dinner because he finally developed genuine feelings for another person, or at least because found you interesting. But now, he’s walking away to eat in the solitude of his room. You guess you shouldn’t have expected him to fall in love with you after one brief conversation.

You hang your head as you grab your bowl, and then lumber behind Bakugou on his way to the dorms.

Except, Bakugou takes an unexpected turn toward the communal dining hall. And you giddily follow.

You practically skip to the seat across from Bakugou, though quickly hide your glee when he looks up at you. The lack of utter resentment in his eyes warms your heart. 

The first bite of your meal is euphoric. It’s so good that while you’re eating, your stomach growls for more.

“Bakugou, this is like, amazing!” you scarf down noodles in between words. “How did I not know you were a great cook?!”

“Eat slower dumbass or you’ll choke!” Bakugou chides, before clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth to make a “tch” sound. “You should’ve expected it. I’m pretty good at most things.” he concentrates on his noodles when he quickly adds “But uh… Thanks, I guess.” 

During the past half hour, you and Bakugou have interacted more than you could have conceived in your worst nightmares, yet he’s treated you amiably. Of course, there were the occasional digs thrown at your asinine cooking skills, but he was never truly hostile. Bakugou never keeps his thoughts hidden from everyone; It’s known he’s always straightforward, even when it’s not appropriate. But, this is different from his brutal honesty. He’s allowing you to pass through the barricade of hostile flames, those same flames that shrivel up and spit out anyone else who even tries to so much as walk by him, and entering the area where his fire kindles. He’s letting you peek through the cracks of his ruthless facade so you can see that he’s human, not a walking bomb. 

While normally he parades his gifts, he’s humbly made dinner for you without the expectation that you suffocate him with compliments. He always holds his head with pride, yet brought himself down to earth so he could thank you.

You smile coyly into your ramen. “Hey, how come you decided to help me?”

“I was hungry.” Bakugou deadpans, but his rosy cheeks tell another story. He drops his chopsticks to look at you, a taunting glint in his eyes. “Plus, you were close to burning down the entire school. Again.”

You roll your eyes. “Just wait! Next time I try to cook, I’ll do fine!”

“If you ever feel like cooking again-- Don’t. You’re shit.” Bakugou swallows a few noodles and digs his chopsticks in the bowl, searching for another. Though really, he’s just using his delicious food as an excuse to not meet your eyes. “Just ask me. Because next time you step into a kitchen, you’ll be lucky to make it out alive.” 

“Maybe you should just teach me how to cook!” you giggle into your chopsticks. 

“Maybe,” Bakugou echoes, but he doesn’t mind cooking for you again. He wants to.  

“You should show me some of your recipes!” you poke Bakugou’s cheek with one of your chopsticks, and he snarls.

“Only to watch you fuck it up?” he laughs. “Yeah, right. I’ll do the cooking for now,” he concludes before the two of you fall into a comfortable silence.

You never thought you would ever feel tranquil next to Bakugou, but his presence in this room feels like holding a torch in the night. His mere demeanor makes you feel safe. You feel protected. 

You’ve watched Bakugou fight before and he’s an absolute maniac. But you want him to be a maniac for you. You want to watch him fight for you. You want to continue these midnight escapades. You want him to cook for you every night after he gets back from the gym. 

You want Bakugou. You need him.

Fuck. 

You have a crush on Katsuki Bakugou. 

“Hey, let me wash your bowl for you.” you offer when you both finish. “Cmon, it’s the least I can do.” Reluctantly, Bakugou hands you his dish. “I won’t let you down, chef.” You assure him with a wink. 

Your wink completely throws Bakugou off. He watches your ass bounce as you strut away in shock. Only once you reach the sink does he finally have enough control over his blush (and boner) to approach you. 

“See! I can do something!” you gesture at the spotless bowls. 

“Yeah. It’s something.” Bakugou smirks. “Something any dumbass can figure out how to do.”

You gently jab his side with your elbow. “Cmon, give me a little credit!

Bakugou rolls his eyes. “Fine. It’s impressive... For a dumbass.” 

You ignore the demeaning nickname. “Thank you!” you beam.

When you don’t receive an answer, you become nervous that you were too boring for him, and he’s lost interest in you. When you look at him, he’s rubbing his eyes to keep them from locking shut. That’s when your own exhaustion hits you, and your eyelids begin to droop. A yawn escapes your lips and echoes throughout the kitchen. 

“Is it past your bedtime?” he snickers, even though he’s visibly more exhausted than you.

“Shut up.” you yawn again. “Y’know, every time our class does something fun, you’re always the first one asleep. You’re like a baby.” You roll your shoulders before stretching your arms. “It’s lame.” 

Bakugou scratches his head mindlessly. “I have more important things to do than hang out with you extra’s” he retorts.

“Yeah, like sleeping? How exciting.”

“Sleeping is more fun than hanging out with lame-ass extra’s.” 

You push out your bottom lip and cross your arms. “Hey! I’m not boring.” You pout.

Bakugou laughs. He actually laughs. His vermillion eyes twinkle and his tight-lipped smirk expands into two full rows of teeth. His broad shoulders bob and when he shakes his head, his blond mane bounces. An animated smile spreads across your face, so wide it exposes your fine lines and under-eye creases. But you can’t help it. You want to be the person that tames Bakuogou to the point he feels comfortable laughing. You want to be the reason he finally smiles as he falls asleep.

“You’re not boring. You’re just an idiot.” Bakugou snickers.

You yawn in reply, and Bakugou rolls his eyes, “Cmon, idiot. We’re going to bed.” 

Bakugou guides you to your room with his hand on your lower back. He doesn’t touch you, only hovers, but you can feel the heat dispersing from his palms. His warmth draws you in, only to fully envelope you when you rest your head on his bicep. He doesn’t object and continues escorting you to your dorm. 

“How did you know this room was mine?” you ask, casually leaning into Bakugous palm so his hand finally touches you. He flinches at the contact but doesn’t pull away.

“The room competition.”

“I remember you were being super lame and sleeping. So how do know, stalker?” 

Bakugou currently is too drained to address your name-calling, but he’ll address it when he gets back at you another time. “Yeah, well, Sparky was ecstatic to be in your room and filled me in on every detail I missed. Including your dorm number.”

You scrunch your nose and stick out your tongue. “Ew! What a perv!” you chirp.

“That’s what you get for letting Denki-dumbass in your room.” 

When you giggle at Bakugou, he smiles softly back before averting his eyes to the ground. He clears his throat and shifts his weight.

You’re making Katsuki Bakugou nervous!

And you love it. You want Bakugou to feel conflicted around you, for his emotions to overwhelm him so much that the forbidden praises resting at the bottom of his throat, those kind words he would never confess to anyone, to shoot out at you. You want to watch him awkwardly recover from the unprecedented compliment he aimed at you, and listen to his guttural mumblings as he makes a feeble attempt to regain superior ground. 

He silently turns away, but you grab his wrist and tug him back. You hastily kiss his cheek, leaving both of you blushing deeply.

Then, Bakugou leans down to kisses you. 

The kiss starts slow and sleepy, but Bakugou isn’t into that type of shit. He’s not into the type of kiss that bores you while simultaneously leaving you begging for more, so he pulls you closer to deepen and speed up the kiss.

Kissing him is like licking a sugary caramel apple. You’ve never met a boy who tastes this good-- alas, you’ve never actually kissed one, either. But there’s no way every boy is like this. You open your mouth so his tongue can intertwine with yours.

His tongue is slippery, his lips are spitty, and he bites your lip to point you know wake up with sores, but you enjoy every second you spend breathing in his heat. You can feel the temperature rising as you snake your hands into his hair and press against his chest.

 Are you making out with Bakugou at midnight?

 Yes, you are. And you love it.

 The kiss ends far too soon. You want to kiss him until you’ve sucked all the sweetness off of his lips. You want to remain in his grasp forever. 

“G’night, Y/n.” he whispers in your ear, his warm breath sending chills down your spine.

With that, he shoves his hands deep into the pocket of his sweatpants and trudges to his dorm. 

You wake up to a sharp pain on your neck. You groggily stumble to your mirror, your mouth falling agape at the sight of a hickey.

When the fuck did Bakugou even do that?!

You gingerly apply pressure to the love mark wit your fingers, and it stings. 

Then it hits you why he did this. 

It’s a territorial mark. 

Your scoff. He’s claiming you before even asking you on a date. 

That’s fucking Katsuki Bakugou for you. But, honestly, the thought of him putting his ownership of you on display like a prized trophy, boasting how you belong to him makes you feel weak. 

You don’t want to seem like a slut, but you also don’t  hide Bakugous marking. It’ll convey the message that not only are you his, but that you are the girl he let his heart out of its cage for. 

When you pass the ‘Bakusquads’ table, it’s empty, except for a plate steaming chocolate chip pancakes that sit across from him. 

Your favorite.

You hesitantly sit down in front of Bakugou, who briefly admires his work on your neck before merely greeting you with a grunt.

You’re in awe of the fluffy, chocolatey pancakes preceding you. There’s a waterfall of syrup trickling off the sides, with a single slice of butter perked on the top pancake, like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.“Did you… Make these for me?” You use the fork he grabbed you to dig in. It never even crossed your mind that Bakugou held the capacity to be this thoughtful. But not only did he make you three heavenly pancakes, he brought you utensils, and even set them down with proper etiquette. Fork on the left, knife and spoon on the right.

“Yeah. Since you can’t cook for shit.” he croaks. “I don’t want you poisoning yourself.”

“Awww Bakugou? Do you care about me?” It’s obvious he does, but he would be caught dead before he admitted it.

 “Eat shit.”

“If you wanted to eat shit, you should’ve let me make breakfast.” You quirk an eyebrow, biting your lip to suppress a smile.

Bakugou gruffly responds. “You have a point, idiot.” 

You take another bite of your pancakes and moan into the fork. “Bakugou, for real, you are amazing at cooking.”

 He rolls his eyes. “I know. I don’t need you to tell me.”

You giggle to yourself, deciding it’s best to leave grumpy morning Bakugou alone. “Okay big guy, I’ll back off with the compliments. But I’m not fucking with you. I really mean it.”

There’s a brief pause. “Thanks, asshole,” he mumbles, keeping his head down so you can’t see the deep blush on his cheeks.

A long, comfortable silence, reminiscent of the one last night, ensues. Halfway through your meal, you set down your fork. You straighten your posture and exhale weightily, gaining Bakugous attention. 

 “Hey, Bakugou? Do you… Umm, would you wanna go on a date?” Even though it’s obvious he likes you, your voice quivers as you speak.

“Sure, idiot.” Bakugous voice barely wavers, but he still plasters a cheeky look on his face to cover it up. “But I’ll cook.”

[wdw-spidey]

Party With My Ex - Corbyn Besson

Summary: You miss your ex and end up seeing him at a party 

Warnings: Anxiety attack 

Word count: 2.3k 

(This is honestly one of my favourite things I have ever written) 

**

He looked good, healthy and happy even though it hurt to admit it. I quickly turned around going into the closest room I could find around me that was empty. Once I found a room that seemed empty I shut the door leaning my back against it, I took deep breaths like I taught myself to do when I felt like a panic attack was coming. I glanced down at my phone tempted to text or call my best friend but decided against it. I unlocked my phone scrolling through my pictures, my heart dropping when I saw some pictures of my ex-boyfriend and I. We couldn’t completely avoid us crossing the same paths at some social events considering my best friend was dating his best friend, we got invited to really similar parties, hence why I was in the situation I’m in now. Our relationship in my eyes was perfect, I loved him more than anything, I thought he felt the same way but I was wrong. One day he told me he wanted to be single, to focus more on himself, his career, he didn’t really see a long-term future for us, didn’t see me as part of his ‘growth’. I locked my phone putting it back in the small clutch purse I had brought with me. I put more weight against the door, my breathing was becoming more and more irregular. I looked around me noticing I was in some small library room, a bookshelf against the left wall, windows all along the back wall with a pretty view of the backyard that had a pool, this nice looking fountain type thing and a huge field. I made my way over to the bookshelf looking at the book selection. I wanted to pick one up but I felt like that would be intruding to the party hosts personal space so I didn’t touch anything. I sat down on the chair that allowed me to face the window to enjoy the outside view. A few people were outside, some sitting at the lounge chairs, others in the pool going for a swim. I was just glad nothing reminded me of my ex here. I felt myself starting to calm down but I knew once I’d step back out there and see him again I’d start to freak out.

After a few minutes of being in here I got up making my way out, I opened the door waiting to make sure I wouldn’t crash into anyone when I stepped out, more specifically my ex. Once I was out I made my way to where the kitchen was, I went into the cooler that my friends brought to the party grabbing one of the drinks I brought for myself, I took a sip and stood leaning against the counter that was behind me. Someone tapped my shoulder which made my heart race I looked to where the tapping came from and there stood my best friend.

“How you liking the party?” She asked me and I just shrugged my shoulders.

I didn’t like lying to her but I also didn’t want to hurt her feelings, “It’s good. You know I love being out and social especially when you’re around,” I said forcing myself to smile.

I knew right away that she read right through me and knew that I would be most likely leaving first and not say a word about it. She also knew that I wasn’t really enjoying myself right now.

“Your facial expressions constantly give you away, what’s wrong?” She asked me, changing her position so she was standing in front of me.

“I just… I don’t really feel like partying today,” I replied shrugging my shoulders, I technically wasn’t lying since I would enjoy being in bed, watching tiktoks until I could barely keep my eyes open, that was part of the reason I wasn’t having fun.

“Ok, well, if you want to leave now you can. Please come see me before leaving this time, or at least text me!” She said while putting her hands on my shoulders shaking me a bit, probably trying to get her message across better by doing that.

I nodded my head, but in my mind I didn’t know if I would remember to say bye to her, sometimes it was just so hard to find her when we’re in a house crowded of people with a bunch of rooms that I’m unsure where they lead to.

“I’ll stay with you for a bit,” She said, she grabbed a drink from our cooler, opening it and taking a sip, “Want to go swim?”

I shook my head, “Let’s go watch the beer pong game,” I told her going towards where I’d seen a beer pong set up when we’d got here.

Once I reached the family room where a table was set out I stopped dead in my tracks turning back around which made my best friend bump into me.

“Oh,” She let out once I bumped into her, “Was it not that way?” She asked me backing away from me.

I shook my head, “Uh, no, I mean yeah, it’s that way I just… I need to pee,” I didn’t wait for her to reply, I quickly walked out of there. I wasn’t sure if she knew that I wasn’t over my ex but I didn’t want to talk about it, nor did I really want to think about it right now. I ended up outside in the backyard, barely anyone was out here, just people smoking, nobody was really talking to me. I chugged my drink and sat by the pool with my feet dipped in. I shut my eyes trying to let my mind go blank (which was really hard to do).

“You ok?” I heard someone say beside me.

I looked to where the voice was coming from and there was Daniel, my best friend’s boyfriend, my ex’s best friend sitting beside me. I glanced towards my feet kicking them around in the water, watching the water patterns that were happening from my movements.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was thinking of having one more drink and then head out,” I said, glancing towards him once.

We didn’t really talk much ever since Corbyn broke up with me but since he was my best friend’s boyfriend, it wasn’t like we completely broke contact.

“Don’t leave without telling any of us, please,” Daniel said, which reminded me of what my friend told me only like 5 minutes ago.

I nodded my head not really knowing what to say after that, hoping he’d just get up and leave but he stayed beside me.

“Is this.. about your ex? Is that why you’re not yourself right now?” He asked me.

I glanced towards the family room window seeing my ex talking to some girl that I couldn’t recognize from here.

“I don’t want to talk about him right now,” I said while changing my gaze to the pool so he wouldn’t notice me looking at him.

“Let me just say one last thing, he misses you, a lot. He wanted to talk to you today but he didn’t really know how, then he realized you’ve been avoiding him all night so he gave up on trying. Before coming here he was on your Instagram profile. He- He feels really bad for breaking up with you, and what he said about not seeing your relationship as something long-term was bullshit. He told me that he wanted to move into a place with you a few days before he broke up with you. I know you don’t want to talk about him but… Maybe you should just go see him if you miss him too, or.. if you want I can tell him you’re out here and he could just.. come out here..” He said. I was shocked, I couldn’t think straight. I glanced back to where he was just before Daniel told me all this and Corbyn was no longer there. I grabbed my clutch (that I somehow haven’t lost yet). I stood up going back inside and rushing to get to the front entrance of the house, going back outside but in the front lawn. I went into my clutch grabbing my phone. I realized I needed to have one more drink so ran back inside going to the cooler grabbing another one of my drinks, drinking it quickly while going back out to the front lawn. I could feel all the memories from Corbyn and I’s relationship coming to my mind, I tried to block it out, I didn’t want to think of him like that right now. I didn’t think this could ever happen.

I did the breathing exercises again, I sat down on the front porch holding on to my phone until my knuckles hurt. I opened up my snapchat to view some of my friends snapchats, I noticed I had a flashback to look on. I went to check it seeing a cute video of Corbyn and I being goofy together, I immediately went off the app. I texted my best friend asking her if she knew about how Corbyn felt. I went into my contacts pressing on Corbyn’s contact. The phone rang probably twice, I was expecting to hear his voicemail message but instead I heard the loud music and people screaming.

“Hi,” I heard him say. I had to lift up the volume on my phone since I could barely hear him.

“I’m outside,” I said not bothering to say anything more.

I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I was tipsy that I was making this call or if it was because I really had that much faith in our relationship.

“What?” He basically yelled into the phone.

“I’ll text you,” I hung up the phone and texted him telling him I was sitting out at the front porch. Not even 2 minutes later he was outside, his hair a bit of a mess, he had a unopened water bottle in hand, he gave it to me.

“I felt like maybe you’d need this, I know that’s what I did when we we’re dating.. and you’d drink I… Yeah..” He passed his hand through his hair. I grabbed the water bottle opening it and taking a sip of it.

“Thank you, so um.. I talked to Daniel and he said you wanted to talk to me,” I shuffled my feet around trying to distract myself, I hated these kind of conversations, I also hated eye contact during these conversations.

“Can you at least.. look at me please..” He asked, nearly begged me, I bit my lip, forcing myself to stop wiggling and moving my feet around, I looked up at him, his eyes were so intense, I could tell he hasn’t been drinking just from the way he was talking and his breath didn’t smell like alcohol at all, “I- When I said during our break up I didn’t see our relationship being long-term, that.. wasn’t true at all. I was just worried, I was worried because I thought you deserved more, deserved better, I thought I wasn’t enough for you, I  felt like you deserved more attention, I’m constantly working, on tour, I focus so much on work that sometimes, I felt like I was putting you second to work, I felt that was wrong, you deserved more than that. I’m sorry. I.. regret breaking up with you. I’d like to start over.. If you want. I don’t care if we start just by being friends, or if we start dating again, I don’t know, I just.. I’m sorry,” I turned the bottle cap around opening the water bottle and closing it again.

I didn’t really know how to respond, I just opened up my snapchat showing him my flashback story to lighten the mood, and mainly to let myself think of how to respond to that. I never knew he felt that way, I had told him so many times that I understood how much work meant to him and that I didn’t mind that he was so busy, work made him happy and whatever made him happy, made me happy. Once the videos were done he had a huge smile on his face, he seemed a lot more comfortable and less nervous.

“So.. Let me start by saying I’d love to just go back to the flirting stage, the getting to re-know each other I guess, the stage where you prove to me you won’t break my heart, we can go on dates and just take things slow but I won’t be talking to other guys and going on dates with other guys. Corbs, I’ve told you I don’t mind how much you work, I don’t mind how much you’re away from home, we made it work. I didn’t feel like I deserved more. You’re a hardworking guy and I love that about you,” His cheeks went red and I could tell he was really happy with how I responded.

“You were avoiding me all party,” He said breaking our eye contact.

“Because I’ve missed you,” I replied. Now feeling myself start to blush.

“Can I drive you home? I promise I haven’t drank anything,” He told me while digging in his pocket for his keys.

I nodded my head, “This better not be considered our first date,” I warned him a small smile on my face.

“It’s not, go tell Daniel and your friends you’re leaving, I’ll wait here for you,” He told me, stuffing his hands in his pants pocket.

I turned back around my mind rushing, my heart beating fast. I didn’t think this party would turn out this way nor do I think my best friend had thought I’d be leaving this party early to be with my ex but I guess things turn out unexpectedly for some good reasons sometimes.  

[rocket-remmy]

Finish This|| Mercy and Remmy

TIMING: A Few Weeks Ago PARTIES: @cryxmercy and @whatsin-yourhead SUMMARY: Remmy enlists Mercy to help them take care of one of the Ring’s top leaders. CONTENT: Blood, gore, vomit

Remmy paced, for what seemed like the seventh time that day. They’d been doing a lot of pacing lately, as well. There were a lot of things to pace about, anyway. But this...this was really important. And it was more important that Remmy stayed calm during it. They didn’t know this Mercy person very well, but she seemed just as ready and eager to help as the others. There would hopefully be no explosions today, but Remmy understood that what they were going to do here was no less incriminating. But maybe if it wasn’t them, if they weren’t the one throwing the final blow, it would be easier. It could be easier, right? If someone else did it? They supposed they’d just have to find out. Down from the other side of the street came a blonde haired woman who looked just like the picture in her file-- Mercy. Remmy stopped pacing and stood up a little straighter. They gestured to her to come over to them without seeming too conspicuous. “Meryc?” they asked, even though they were pretty sure. “Remmy,” they held out their hand. “Um...thanks for helping me with this. I uh-- I’m pretty sure he’s inside this bar. Should we like...get him to come outside somehow?”

Mercy had no qualms when it came to making bad people pay their dues. She despised people that preyed on the weak, the helpless, and the innocent. Especially for profit. There was a special place in hell for those in particular. And Mercy had no problem sending them on their way. After her time fighting in the Ring, Mercy knew the types of people that had run the place. They were bad people. The man she was after tonight was especially so. She spotted someone who could only be Remmy - pacing a groove in the pavement - and made her way over when they gestured to her. Mercy grinned. “That’s me.” She shook Remmy’s hand firmly. “Good to meet you. And you’re welcome. But no thanks needed.” Mercy started putting her hair up in a ponytail. “Just seein’ this asshole get what he deserves is thanks enough.” Her eyes flicked to the bar, then back to Remmy. “We can,” she nodded. “Though if he recognizes us, he could run. Which means he might skip town. Plus side is neither of us can die if he decides to do something stupid like shoot at us. So there’s that.” Mercy sized up the bar as they talked, speculating how many people it might hold. “Or, on the flip side,” She glanced at Remmy to gauge their opinion. “- we can go in after him.”

Mercy had a confident air about her that reminded Remmy of Lydia a little bit. She had a focus, too, that reminded Remmy of their old Commander. They swallowed. “Go in...after him?” they asked, blinking a little in surprise. They rubbed the eye path over their left eye before glancing back inside the darkened windows. The man was sitting at the bar, and while there weren’t too many people inside, the worry of casualties vibrated in Remmy’s mind. “I-- I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. But...he would probably recognize us, you’re right. We-- we can’t let him run. If he gets away, then he’ll just try and start a new Ring. That’s our whole mission-- to stop that from happening. He has to--” they explained, but the last word stuck in their throat. Die. They knew it was true, they knew it needed to happen, but the thought still made them sick. But that was why Mercy was here, right? “Maybe we can use that to our advantage, though. Get him to come outside. One of us can, um-- go inside and scare him out while the other waits outside to stop him. Do you think that’d work?”

Mercy nodded. “Will he really expect someone to walk right up to him in a public place?” Though it was the ‘public’ bit that Mercy was worried about. Despite what the man had done, and what he deserved (and was going to get), if someone saw them or gods forbid, got video of them, doing what they came here to do, things could go very badly for them in the future. And Mercy didn’t want the headache of having to fix that sort of mess. For herself, and definitely not for Remmy. And while Mercy could live with a bit of collateral damage, she also didn’t want innocent bystanders hurt if they could help it. They weren’t a part of this. “Me either,” Mercy said of the bystanders. Remmy was right. If the asshole got away, he’d just rebuild elsewhere. But as Remmy spoke, Mercy got the feeling they weren’t too happy about what the end game had to be. She touched their shoulder gently. “I know. And he will,” she said, giving Remmy’s shoulder a small squeeze. 

Mercy glanced through the window as well, taking note of where the man was sitting before turning back to Remmy. “I think it’s perfect.” She glanced casually around the street. It was mostly vacant except for the odd late-night patron here and there. Most would be too drunk to think anything of a bar fight, or a scuffle on the street. “How about I go in and ruffle his feathers a bit, and when he runs - which he will - you take him down the second he comes out that door? Because I’m pretty sure he’s arrogant enough to believe you’ll never show your face around him again. He /might/ recognize me, but he probably won’t give a shit.” Mercy had the tiny advantage of being a familiar face from the Ring, but not ‘locked in a cage in the basement’ familiar. As far as this guy knew, Mercy gave zero fucks who he was, or what he did. And likely returned the sentiment. That too, was an advantage. But Mercy wanted to make sure Remmy was as okay as they could be before they got this thing started. Because once they did, there would be no stopping until it was over. 

Remmy didn’t know much about Mercy except what her file had on her and what they’d discussed online a little-- but the woman really did seem like she knew what she was doing, and she had bounds of confidence where Remmy found themself faltering. There was a palpable relief to their sigh when she offered to be the one to go inside and catch the man’s attention, because Remmy was more than sure they wouldn’t have been able to do it. But asking felt much more forceful, as if Remmy had asked her here simply to do all the work, and that wasn’t the truth at all. Nodding, they shuffled in their spot. “Yeah, that-- I can do that,” they said, looking from her to the window, watching the man inside. They rubbed their hands down the front of their jeans, as if they were sweaty, but knew they weren't-- they didn’t sweat anymore, which was a strange thing to have taken note of, but it was all the small things now, that made them realize how much they’d changed after dying. “I can do that,” they repeated for emphasis, glancing down the side alley. “Try and lead him out there if you can, more um-- out of the way.”

This wasn’t Mercy’s first rodeo… as the saying went. She’d flushed out more than her share of bad guys that thought they were untouchable. And had them begging for their mothers before she’d finished showing them how utterly mistaken they had been. Remmy however… Mercy couldn’t say for sure if this was their first time in such a situation, or if their nervousness - which was completely understandable - came from the thought of what was to come. Maybe both. Either way, Mercy had faith that Remmy would do what needed doing, even as their sigh of relief as Mercy offered to play bird dog didn’t slip past the Fury’s notice. So Mercy gave Remmy an encouraging smile. “You can do this.” Mercy’s eyes glanced towards the alley, and her smile slipped into something much more devious. “You got it, boss.” She turned for the door. “One scumbag comin’ up.”

Inside the bar, it smelled like stale cigarette smoke and cheap booze, with a faint undertone of body odor and something Mercy didn’t care to name. The floor was slightly sticky, and Mercy’s boots made a sound like peeling velcro as she approached the bar. The few other patrons sat at tables, alone or in small groups. A few of them watched her as she passed by, some well into their cups, others nursing a single, warm bottle of cheap beer, but otherwise no one paid her much attention. 

 She stopped at the old jukebox against the wall, scanning the selections with an air of bored indifference. Though she took the time to glanc at their target’s reflection in the jukebox’s grimy glass covering as she made her choice. He hadn’t moved a muscle other than to lift his bottle to his mouth and set it back on the bar. A bar - covered in a sticky film of gods knew what- Mercy was leaning heavily against a moment later as she ordered four double tequilas. 

They came just as the first bars of her selection started to play, and Mercy downed the first two  one after another, turning the glasses upside down on the bar. Bang, bang. The third followed, but more slowly. Mercy taking the time to swirl the clear liquor a few times before tipping it back with familiar ease. Bang. The fourth one… Mercy let it sit where it was. She ran her finger around the rim of the glass as the static hum of her power started to drift through the space around her. Searching for any cracks in her oblivious barmate’s armor, as it were. Only when she finally saw him shift in his seat did Mercy turn back her fourth shot. Bang. She swore the man’s hand tightened on his bottle. 

One finger still on the bottom of her now empty glass, she leaned slightly towards him. The air around her hummed with static. Mercy gave her glass a flick. It slid down the bar and clinked against the man’s bottle. It was only then that he finally looked up, and found himself face to face with Mercy. “You should be running, Robert Castenza.” In a flash, the Fury’s hand was around his wrist - his skin was like ice - and she let the full force of her influence pour into him. “You should be running now.” 

Remmy, I hope you’re ready...

 Remmy paced. Again. They had taken to the side door, figuring if they were trying to run from someone and not be noticed or recognized, that’s what they’d do. They just hoped the man inside was the same. Wringing their hands together, they prepared for what was about to happen. They couldn’t entirely see inside anymore, but they’d propped the door open enough to hear what was going on. Mercy was making her way through the bar, the sounds echoing out into the alley and bouncing off the walls. Remmy glanced around, before taking up a position behind the door. Closed their eyes as they prepared for what was about to happen. They could do this, they had to do this. Hands tightening, wringing together. They drew in a deep breath, letting the feel of air in their lungs, their throat, remind them what they were. What they were doing this for. The pain they’d endured, and the things they’d had to do. The blood on their hands because of it. Ben’s face flashing behind their eyelids, and then Jax. They needed justice. They needed to end this.

Heavy footsteps sounded near the door. Remmy’s eyes flew open just as the door did, and they stumbled back a little, surprised at the hulking form that came through. He was...bigger than he looked. They could see the stitches holding him together, like a bad frankenstein costume or something. Nothing seemed to match, even under his clothes. Remmy drew in a breath, reeled back-- and swung their fist right into his stomach. He doubled back, swerving to try and find who had thrown the punch. c5zAn anger flared through him and Remmy drew back into themself a little. He recognized them. Remmy stood, frozen. He raised his fist, high above their head, ready to strike. And all Remmy could do was close their eyes and wait for the hit, hoping Mercy would get there soon. They weren’t sure they could do this alone.

No one in the bar so much as looked up from their drink as Castenza bolted. Mercy didn’t move a muscle either. Even her fingers stayed poised, frozen in place where an ice cold wrist, criss-crossed with rough lines of stitches, had just been. She took a slow breath - in and then out - before she slid off her stool and followed.  

Mercy didn’t run. There was no need. Not yet. 

Castenza headed for the back door, bursting through it without hesitation. But not without resistance. The man’s hulking form rocked back as Remmy made contact. Mercy grinned. It was a savage, cold thing, without humor or warmth. The door to the alley swung loosely on broken hinges, and Mercy saw Remmy’s silhouette standing in the dark. Saw them take a step back as recognition sparked in Castanza’s eyes. 

There was a beat where everything seemed to slow down. In that beat, the hulking man raised his fist, intent on smashing Remmy’s skull in. But he never got the chance. Moonlight flashed as something hissed through the air. There was a sound like raw meat slapping against wet pavement, and Castenza staggered forwards, his size and momentum putting him off-balance as his fist never made contact. It lay on the filthy pavement, along with most of his forearm, severed just below the elbow. 

“Ah, ah, ah...” Mercy stepped from the shadows into the moonlight. “That’s not nice.” Gore oozed from the end of a wickedly-sharp blade held loosely in her right hand. A bit had splattered her cheek. She didn’t seem to notice as she glanced briefly at Remmy, giving them a steadying nod, before turning back to Castenza, who was already recovering. He was a monstrosity of a man, towering over Mercy and Remmy both, and patched together like some insane Mary Shelley fever dream. And he wasn’t going down easy. Something huge and dark was suddenly blocking her line of sight, and Mercy ducked out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by the steel dumpster that had been thrown at them in a show of pure, brute strength. It hit the alley wall with a deafening, metallic screech. Huge chunks of bricks and mortar were torn free, a few falling on top of Mercy. She shielded herself from the worst of the debris, and pushed to her feet, ignoring the rest.  

Her focus was already turning to the sound of heavy boots retreating down the alley. A glance down told her the severed arm was also gone. 

She called out to Remmy, hoping they were nearby and unharmed.

Castenza was running. 

One moment, Remmy was ducking, the next, they were jumping out of the way of a dumpster. It all was happening so fast, too fast. Rock sprayed into them and they threw their hands up to shield their eyes, somehow knowing it wouldn’t entirely matter if they got pelted with the stuff. But getting crushed wasn’t an option. They looked around wildly for Mercy, but she was already moving away from them, down the alley after the large man. Er, zombie. Shaking themself free of their trance, Remmy leapt into action. They reached out with one hand and grabbed whatever was nearest to them-- a wooden pallet-- and knocked it to the ground in front of the lumbering giant. His foot connected with it, stuck in between two boards he crushed with his weight, and he went teetering down. Remmy leapt up and out of the way again, kicking out and catching the monstrosity of a man square in the chin. His body finally teetered over, coming down with a hard crash, and Remmy looked up for the blonde woman. 

“Here!” they shouted, jumping on top of the man, trying to slow him from standing up before she got there. They knew with one easy squeeze, one easy pop! They could pull his head clean off if they wanted-- they had the strength right now. But the thought sent their heart plummeting into their stomach, distracting them enough to let the other zombie reach behind him, grab a fistful of their shirt, and yank them off. Remmy’s body collided hard with the alley wall and they came crashing down on a pile of garbage cans, clattering loudly. “The head!” they shouted blearily, crawling out from under the cans, “y-you have to go for the head!”

Castenza didn’t run far. He stumbled as Remmy blocked his path with something heavy and cumbersome, and started to go down. A moment later, Mercy saw Remmy’s smaller form strike the huge man hard enough to put him on his back. Mercy’s feral grin slipped back into place. What she could do with strength like that. Though despite Remmy’s formidable blows, Castenza was stronger. So Mercy moved a bit faster. He wouldn’t get away a second time. 

There was a moment when Mercy thought Remmy might end things themselves, and if that were the case, Mercy would let them. But a single moment of hesitation can be fatal. Mercy didn’t flinch as Remmy was flung into the wall. They were more indestructible even than Mercy, and could hold their own. Mercy did, however, listen to what Remmy said. Go for the head. 

The Fury spun her sword, readjusting her grip as she bore down on the patchwork monster struggling to his feet. He swung at her, wielding a broken piece of the wooden pallet. The sharpened edge sliced across Mercy’s thigh, and blood poured from the wound, a dark stain that spread far too quickly. Mercy grunted - it fucking hurt - but didn’t falter. She severed the man’s remaining hand with a swing of her blade. The limb, still holding the bloody piece of the pallet, fell to the ground.

The monstrosity screamed his rage at her. The lower half of his jaw followed his arm, turning the rage to a muted gurgle. Mercy lay the edge of her sword against what remained of the man’s jaw. Remmy was moving nearby, but Mercy didn’t look at them. If they were moving, they were alive. 

Mercy’s attention was focused on the evil monster at her feet. The air around her began to hum with static. The darkness became darker, thicker even as it seemed to shift and blur. And then, from the nothing of the ether, a great pair of dusky wings spread out from the Fury’s back. Silent and ethereal, they were as intangible as the chaotic roll of storm clouds and fog that swirled around them, fading in and out as they seemed to flex and move in time with the Fury now fully absorbed in the turmoil of the man in front of her. 

The alley smelled of sulfur and old, forgotten things as Mercy finally spoke. 

“‘For the Angel of Death spread her wings… and breathed in the face of the foe as he passed…’” The Fury let her blade slip against the soft flesh of Castenza’s throat. His eyes went even wider, and he tried to strike at Mercy, shaking his head in a vain attempt to make her stop. But without arms, the effort only served to push the blade deeper into his flesh. Mercy - fully taken by her power - merely continued, holding the man’s gaze with her own, her face losing all semblance of warmth. “‘And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, and their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.’” 

The blade flashed again, this time with deadly intent. Gore arched across the brick wall as Mercy severed Castenza’s head from his shoulders. His body lurched to the side, falling in a limp heap next to his severed arm. His head rolled a few feet away. Mercy cleaved it in half. When nothing moved, Mercy finally turned to look back at Remmy. 

She gave them a slow, solemn nod. “It’s done.”

 As they watched, Remmy put a hand to their throat. The man was crying, begging, gurgling. He wanted them to stop. He didn’t want to die. Remmy closed their eyes when it happened. Flinched when they heard the thud. Remembered that they, too, were at the mercy of a hunter’s blade slicing their throat. Immortal did not mean unkillable. When they opened their eyes next, Mercy had turned to them. She was bleeding, wounded, but standing fine. Remm swallowed, moved from their spot, and hobbled over to the body, the severed head. “W-we…” they paused, feeling the words lump in their throat, sand on their tongue, “we have to b-burn the body. Just in-- just in case.” They hated the idea of it, but it had to be done. 

They looked down at the body once more. Black blood oozed from its neck and Remmy remembered laying on the floor of the Ring, blood oozing from their stomach after the gargoyle had torn them in half. They remembered the smell and they remembered how it felt and they clutched their stomach, turning and retching behind one of the dumpsters. They fell to their knees, shaking for a moment, before they wiped their mouth and bit their lip. “S-sorry, I’m sorry. I said I was okay with this, I’m sorry,” they muttered. 

Such was the way of most evil things when faced with their own inevitable end. Begging, pleading, bargaining. Crying out to whatever nameless deity they thought would save them in their final moments. But that salvation never came. Mercy knew better than most that Death is the only god who ever comes when called.  

As Castenza met his own end, the raging turmoil that had fueled Mercy’s power began to fade. It had been a very long time since her true nature had grabbed hold so strongly. And it took Mercy a moment to shake loose, to remember where she was and why. But soon enough she came back to herself, ethereal wings fading, her mind once again mostly her own. She wiped her blade clean on her jeans and tucked it away, out of sight beneath her jacket, as she stared down at the headless corpse. 

Remmy was right to think that immortal didn’t mean unkillable. Everything that existed could be killed, if one knew how. Mercy watched them as they moved to join her, and for a moment they both stared down at the mess that had once been a person. A monstrous, evil person, but a person nonetheless. Burning the remains was a failsafe that Mercy agreed with. “We can use one of these dumpsters. And then the pallet for starter fuel.” She could even go back inside for a bottle of something flammable if the dried wood didn’t take. Either way, no one in this part of town was going to care about one random dumpster fire. 

Before they could set about the task, however, Remmy suddenly moved away. The sounds of retching weren’t lost on Mercy. She gave them a moment, frowning slightly, before coming over and squatting down next to them. Mercy held out a clean handkerchief for Remmy to take if they wished.  

“Don’t ever be sorry for not being okay.” Mercy’s voice was gentle, though the words were spoken with soft conviction; a firmness that held no condescension or pity of any sort. Only truth. “And fuck anyone that says you should be.” Mercy glanced back at what remained of Castenza. “I can clean this up,” she said, turning back to Remmy, “if you’d rather head home. Up to you.” It wouldn’t be the first time the Fury had disposed of a body, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But whatever Remmy wanted to do, whatever they needed to do, Mercy would support that. 

 Remmy looked blearily up at Mercy when she handed them a handkerchief. They took it gently, but didn’t use it yet, squeezing it tightly in their hand, as if it were the only thing anchoring them to this moment, to the ground. They unraveled it slowly and pressed it to their face, looking back at the parts of the monster-- no, the man-- dispersed on the ground. Something wavered inside of them, that pull that told them they did not want any of this anymore. But that also told them this was their life now. They knew they couldn’t have it both ways, they couldn’t sit and be passive, but still make exceptions. Make excuses. They needed to decide, one way or another, what kind of person they wanted to be. If they wanted to let this world swallow them up like this, or if they wanted something else. Something...better. 

Finally, Remmy paused, looking up at Mercy. “No, I--” they started, swallowed as more bile rose up their throat. They had decided. “I need to finish this.” One last act, and maybe, with this body, they could burn away the violence in their heart as well.

Mercy waited patiently as Remmy worked through whatever thoughts were tumbling through their head. It was easy to forget that death wasn’t something most people were faced with on a regular basis. And that even less were faced with the choice of taking a life. And while Mercy felt no remorse for the dead man behind them - in her eyes, it was his own choices that had brought him down this path - she did feel the sharp pain of it for Remmy. Not for what had occurred here tonight - Remmy  had made that choice of their own free will - but for the events that had led them here in the first place. For the horrors they had endured - and the atrocities they’d witnessed - that made the taking of a life the lesser of many, many evils. 

But it was done, and there was no changing it. So when Remmy made their choice, Mercy gave them a slow nod before standing and holding out her hand. Hopefully, tonight would help Remmy find the closure they needed. And that so many others needed as well.  

[inyourwildestdreamslove]

Edge of Seventeen: Chapter 2

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader x Billy Hargrove

Type: CYOA

Summary: You’re the new girl in school and not everyone can handle you. Steve and Billy are up for the challenge though and end up begging for your attention. Who will you choose?

I love Rock n’ Roll

The rest of the week feels like you are in some strange Twilight Zone episode. You don’t really have a group of friends and, thus far almost everyone is too intimidated to approach you. You are looking forward to this weekend but you’ve seen Billy hanging off of a few other girls, so you’ve decided your best bet for the concert on Friday is Steve. You have no intention of being some casanova wannabe’s notch.

“Hey beautiful… You ready for tonight?” Billy says as he leans against the locker beside you, his arm resting over your head. You can smell his hair products and cologne intermingle in the air around you.

“Actually… I didn’t know if you still wanted to go with me since you’ve been with… that curly haired girl all week... I don’t know her name… So I agreed to go with Steve.”

“What?” His voice drops dangerously low and his charming smile falls from his face.

“You’re going with Harrington?” he spits out.

“Steve Harrington? Yes, that’s what I said.”

“So let me get this straight… you’re blowing me off... for Harrington?” he sputters indignantly.

“No, you just seemed more interested in that other girl, I figured you wanted to take her and I didn’t want to make you feel obligated to take me.”

“Obligated? I wanted to go with you! Beth isn’t going to like that kind of music! She’s just…”

“Just what Billy? Another notch in your belt? Look… we can be friends, but I’m not okay with feeling like I’m just next in line on the Billy Train, okay? We can do something next weekend…. As friends. Okay?”

With your speech over you slam your locker door shut and go to walk away.

“Hey,” he says grabbing your attention, “You aren’t…”

“Aren’t what?”

“A notch…” he walks up to you and gazes into your eyes, “I figured you would get it… being new… far from home and your friends… Living in this shit town when you’re used to a completely different life. Plus you’ve got good taste in music… I just figured we had more in common…that’s all… I’m not interested in her like I am you...”

“Prove it then…”

“Prove what?”

“I’m not a notch,” you know you sound haughty, but you don’t care.

You walk off down the hallway your boots clicking on the cheap linoleum floor.

That evening Steve rolls up in front of your house and you walk out of the house with a lit  cigarette between your lips. You walk down the path to his car and blow the smoke from your mouth as you send him a smile.

“You look…” he stops as he eyes you up and down, “amazing.”

You can’t stop the smile from sliding onto your lips. You are wearing a pair of fishnet tights under a leather mini skirt and black crop top. A leather jacket with studs and patches adorn your frame and your hair and makeup are wild. The smokey eye and deep almost black lip finishing off the look.

“Thanks!” you chirp as you take in his appearance and purr, “You’re not looking too bad yourself.”

He’s wearing a pair of black jeans and a black tee shirt. His denim jacket is slung over his shoulder as he regards you with bright eyes.

“I cannot believe the coolest girl in school is going out with me tonight,” he says with a smile as he rushes around to your door. He opens it for you and you grind the half smoked cigarette into the ground before you get into this car.

You laugh, “Coolest girl? Is that what the verdict is? Should I make a plaque? Do I get an award?”

“Well… you get a date with me. Isn’t that enough?” He asks with a cheeky grin.

“I guess so…” you say returning his smile.

You’re surprised at how surprisingly easy Steve is talk to as you drive to the amphitheater.

“So… favorite song of all time,” he demands as he drives down the road.

“Cherrybomb.”

“Cherrybomb?” he asks in disbelief.

“What?! Joan Jett is the best!” you exclaim talking about the female rock star.

“Joan Jett?”

“I love rock and roll! So I put another dime in the jukebox baby! I love rock and roll! So come and take the time and dance with me!” You sing, impressing the boy beside of you.

“Owh!” you both finish the chorus together.

“He smiled so I got up and asked for his name!” you sing looking at Steve.

“‘But that don’t matter’ he said ‘because it’s all the same!’” Steve continues with a laugh.

“I said: ‘can I take you home? Where we can be alone…’ and next we’re moving on because he was with me!”

“Yeah! Me!” you both yell together before you both collapsed in a fit of laughter.

“Ok I get it!” he says as he wipes tears of laughter from his eyes, “She’s pretty good.”

“The best.”

“Alright! She’s the best!” he relents.

He pulls up at the venue and you both get out of the car. The night air is cool and you’re grateful for your jacket, but you’re surprised when Steve draps his arm around your shoulders as he leads you up to the ticket booth. He pays for you both and the two of you head inside. He keeps his arm draped around you for both warmth and to make sure he doesn’t lose you in the crowd.

“Are you thirsty?” he asks as he pulls you a little closer to him.

“Yeah!”

He leads you over to the concession stand and you notice a few kids around your age giving the two of you odd looks. You know they have to be from the same school as the two of you.

“What would you like?” he asks as he pulls out his wallet.

“A coke?” you ask sweetly.

“Coming right up!” he exclaims.

After grabbing your drinks and snacks you both make your way to an empty spot on the concrete bleachers. You’re wishing you had brought something to sit on as the cold from the makeshift seat seeps through your skirt and scraps against your almost bare legs.

“Damn… this isn’t very comfortable… I’m going to go see if they have anything for you to sit on,” he says as he gets up.

“You don’t have to! I’ll be fine!”

“No way! You’re going to freeze to death! I’ll be right back!”

You sit looking around at everyone talking and just relaxing with their friends. You light up a cigarette so you have something to do with your hands. You still aren’t comfortable in this town with these people. It’s moments like this that you miss your friends the most.

“Where’s your date?” you hear a familiar voice from behind you.

You glance over your shoulder and see Billy sitting a few rows up, a pair of jeans and just his leather jacket. He lets out a stream of smoke from his nose and smirks at you.

“He went to go get me something to sit on. The concrete is rough…” You explain.

He scoffs before he stands up and jumps the few rows down until he gets to you. He settles in next to you.

“You sure King Steve didn’t just pussy out and leave?”

You glance at him out of the corner of your eyes before you roll your eyes back to front.

“What? It’s a valid question!” he defends himself.

“Really Billy?”

“What? A guy can dream about being the knight in shining armor right?”

You laugh as you glance over at him and see the smile on his face.

“You would make the shittiest knight!”

“Why is that?!” he scoffs in mock offense.

“Because!”

“Because why?”

“Just because!”

“Hey uhh…(Y/N)! You okay?” you hear Steve’s voice behind you and see him drop down onto your row.

“Yeah I’m fine. Billy was just keeping me company.”

“I can see that…”

You see the shit eating grin that Billy sends Steve. He has a cocky smirk on his face when he stands up.

“I’ll see you later sweetheart. Maybe you’ll let me introduce you to the band later?”

“Maybe! I’ll have to see what happens!”

“Oh? You want to meet the band? You haven’t even heard them play.”

“She’s a drummer, Harrington,” you can hear the growl in Billy’s voice as he fixes him with a glare. “Of course, she wants to meet the band. She’ll probably be playing this place before we know it.”

The sound of a guitar cuts through the night and ends the conversation. You can sense the hostility between the two guys and you have a feeling you just made it worse. The concert starts and you turn your attention to the stage. You caught Billy’s eye a few times glaring over at the two of you from his seat a few rows down, but you can’t bring yourself to care. Steve is kind of a goofball, but that honestly just made him more fun. He sang off key and the wrong words with you all night. He made sure you had a blanket to sit on when you were tired, so your legs weren’t raw in the morning and made sure you didn’t get cold. He is incredibly sweet and you had the best time with him.

When the show finally ends after an encore performance from the band, you decide that you like them very much actually, Steve pulls you towards him and the two of you make you way towards the exit. You’re both high on the music and your laughter, as you giggle your way through the crowd.  

“Hey! You want to meet the band?”

You glance behind you to see Billy standing there giving you an imploring look. Steve is just standing awkwardly a little ahead of you.

“I thought you were hungry? But if you want to meet the band it’s fine… We can eat when you are done…”

You notice the way that Steve isn’t quite meeting your eyes anymore. You had heard of the fight Billy and Steve had gotten into. Basically Billy had come in and stolen Steve’s title of King of the school.

“Umm… well…” You really want to meet the band, but you don’t want Steve to feel left out or like you’re choosing Billy over him on your date.

What do you do? Do you go with Billy to meet the band or out to dinner with Steve to continue your date?

VOTE!

I’ve decided to do this like those video games where you choose your plot. Except I’m going to have you vote on plot points to continue the story. I’m really curious to see how this turns out. So feel free to vote and throw ideas at me. Who knows? Your wish maybe granted... Like who doesn’t love Jealous Billy??

Can’t wait to see where this goes!

[starryhedgehog]

my everything : an elu coffee shop au (pt.3)

part one ll part two ll part three ll part four ll part five ll part six ll part seven ll part eight

a/n : this is a series! each part will come out daily -> let me know if you want to be tagged in the comments or send me an ask xx

taglist : @iamshannonmcfarland ll @nidaslife ll @counting-mississippilessly ll @lululallement ll @spacekardemomme ll @desertwytch ll @vludors ll @kiwisfool ll @eluetmaxel ll @itsthelastquestion ll @apollodankaciyorum ll

(if u ever want to be removed from the taglist message me and no hard feelings i promise xx)

III.

When Lucas returns to the coffee shop the next day, he frantically looks around the counter.  He searches again, standing on his tiptoes behind the people in front of him to hopefully glimpse one inkling of messy brown hair and that gorgeous, gorgeous smile.  But he can’t find it.

And with a heavy heart, Lucas realizes that Eliott isn’t here.

He reaches the front of the line, glum and annoyed, and he grumbles, fiddling with his sleeves.  Imane raises an eyebrow at him expectantly. 

“One noisette?” She asks, face indistinguishable. 

And Lucas thinks, fuck it.  “Who made my order last time?”

Imane looks at him like he'd suddenly started speaking Gaelic.  “What?”  And then suspiciously, “why?”

Lucas stammers out some excuse that he doubts Imane believes.  “Because he’s not here?  And my coffee was really good?” 

Imane rolls her eyes, and Lucas thinks they might get stuck there.  “Okay, listen up.”  She leans forward.  “That’s Eliott Demaury.” And then, she adds, rather smugly, “works on Monday’s, Thursday’s, and Friday’s.  Sometimes Saturday’s.” 

Lucas blushes but gives Imane an unimpressed look.  “So … why’re you telling me this?”

And Imane matches him right back.  “Don’t play me, Lucas.”  And then, “are you buying coffee or not?” 

Lucas looks at her like she’s crazy.

“Then get out of line.” 

Lucas rolls his eyes.  “Imane,” he whines.  “So mean.”

Imane rolls her own and pushes him away.  “Bye, Lucas.  Come back Monday.”

IV.

On Monday morning, Lucas thinks he might go broke by his newest obsession with the coffee shop.  He hasn’t got a job, and at this rate, he’ll be broke by the end of summer.  At least then, school’ll start, and he doubts Eliott and Imane will still be working.  Then he’ll be able to take a break and beg his dad for more money, which he probably won’t receive. 

He walks up to the counter and smiles at Imane, placing a paper bag and pushing it towards her.  “Here.” 

Imane looks at the bag, eyebrows raised.  Lucas thinks proudly to himself that she looks really, really suspicious.  “What is it?”  She opens it, then smiles, and the same bell rings in Lucas’ head.  Five times.  “Lucas!”

Lucas shrugs.  “Apology for being grumpy.  It’s lunch.”

And it’s so out of character, so utterly unexpected, that Lucas freezes, jaw-dropped, as Imane reaches over to give him a hug.  “Coffee?” 

“Who are you?” Lucas manages, confused.

Imane rolls her eyes.  “Okay, enough.  Coffee or not?”

Lucas takes the time to look around and catches Eliott’s piercing gaze from across the counter.  He can’t help but smirk.  “No,” he says.  “But what about scones?” 

Imane punches in the order to the register, and looks up at him expectantly.  “Type?”

My type?  Tall, messy hair, works at a coffee shop and goes by the name Eliott.

When Lucas doesn’t say anything, still busy staring at Eliott, she reverts right back to her normal expression.   “Lucas.  What type of scones?” 

Lucas grins right at Eliott.  “Blueberry.  But with cinnamon, please.” 

Imane startles him back to attention as she places her hands on the counter and leans forward.  “What?”  The way she’s staring at him makes Lucas feel like he’s sprouted a pair of horns, or something.  “Okay, Lucas, you’ve been acting weird all day, but this is weird.  Like, really, really weird.”  She turns to see Eliott approaching, and raises an eyebrow.  “Can you believe this guy?” 

Idiot, she means. 

But then Eliott starts laughing, and Lucas stares at him, entranced.  Eliott laughs with his whole being, eyes scrunched up, beaming smile, stature lightly bent over.  And when he speaks, his eyes land on Lucas, and Lucas only.  “Sounds shady, no?”

Lucas thinks he’s going to die.

Imane looks at Lucas, then Eliott, then back at Lucas.  If Lucas had any qualms about whether Eliott was smirking or not, he is completely certain about Imane.  The expression across her face is clearly a smirk.  And a smug one. 

Imane gives one last look at Lucas, takes his money and pushes it in the register, then grabs the paper bag he’s given her and walks into the back room. 

Lucas takes his time to walk over to the other side of the counter, only to lean against it.  Eliott’s already spreading cinnamon icing atop one blueberry scone, perking up as Lucas saunters over.

“You’re here,” Eliott says, cheerfully.  He steps closer to Lucas, scones forgotten on the table.  “I was hoping I’d see you again.” 

Lucas laughs, and his grip against the counter tightens.  If Eliott keeps saying things like this, Lucas will go into cardiac arrest.  He also thinks if he lets go of the counter, he just might melt on the spot.  “I’m not here for you,” is what he ends up saying, and he smacks himself for it later.  “I’m here for the scones.”

“Oh,” Eliott says, raising a brow.  “Of course you are.”  He turns around to grab the scones, a devilish smirk on his face as he shoves them toward Lucas, winking.  “See you.”

And Lucas stands there with his scones, shock written all over his face.  He whirls around and heads back towards the same window seat, doing his best to focus on the arithmetic glaring up at him.

Hours later, and he’s slamming his head against his summer assignments when Eliott slides a coffee cup towards him.

“For you,” Eliott says, leaning against Lucas’ countertop table.  He’s still towering over Lucas, biting his lip as he looks at the papers Lucas has been trying so hard to make disappear over the past hour.  “You should take a break,” Eliott remarks.

Lucas only smiles, sighing.  “I wish.  But,” he motions to his assignments scattered across the table, “no luck.”

Eliott hums, then takes back the coffee cup he’d so graciously offered Lucas and wheels back to the counter.  Lucas stares after him, confused. 

“Wait,” Lucas calls, heartbroken because he wants that coffee, and did he say something wrong?  Instead of figuring out what’s going on, he flushes and keeps his head down, eyes burning holes into the math problems he just can’t seem to figure out. 

Minutes later there’s a tap on his shoulder, and Eliott is holding two paper cups of coffee, grinning.  He’s wearing a jacket and black hoodie this time, instead of the t-shirt and apron Lucas is so accustomed to seeing him wearing.  

“Don’t you dare take those back,” Lucas whispers.

“Come on,” Elliot’s fingers wrap around Lucas’ wrist and tugs him out of his chair.  “We’re going.”

Lucas can’t speak.  He can’t even bring himself to function because Eliott’s fingers are all over his wrist and he’s going into overdrive.  “Where,” he finally manages to breathe, staring up at Eliott with eyes that he hopes aren’t too blissful.

“Out.”  Elliott hands Lucas his coffee, and Lucas thinks quietly that the warmth of the coffee doesn’t feel as nice as the warmth that used to be around his wrist.  

Lucas feels his heart sink as he looks back at his stuff.  “I can’t just leave —“

And just when he needs her, Imane is there.  She smirks, setting down a reserved sign atop his table.  “Yes, you can.”

Lucas is beyond confused.  “What?” He says, voice weak.  And Lucas feels so weak because he’s overcome with all these feelings and nearly all of them are about Eliott, standing beside him.

Imane winks at Eliott, then finger salutes Lucas as she walks back to her post at the register.  “Thanks for the lunch, Lucas.”

Eliott is beaming beside him and he bounds toward the door, holding it open.  “Coming?” 

Lucas nods blindly and follows, grinning.  “If I have to.” 

I’d follow you anywhere.

They walk out the coffee shop and into the streets, and Lucas laughs as Eliott jumps up to the raised curb and swings himself around the turn in the sidewalk with his arm wrapped around the lamp posts.  Despite it being summer, it’s a rather cold day.

Lucas turns to look at Eliott.  “Where’re we going?” 

Eliott shrugs, eyes twinkling.  “I don’t know.  Wherever we want.”

Apparently, ‘wherever we want’ is wherever Eliott Demaury wants, because Lucas clearly suggested the ice cream parlor, and Eliott shook his head, grinning at Lucas with that stupid smile that he knows Lucas can’t resist.  And then he’d grabbed Lucas’ hand and pulled him across the street, running with the wind blowing through their hair and stinging their eyes.

When they enter the nearby park, they keep walking, side by side, until they reach a place where Eliott decides to stop.    

“We’re here?” Lucas crosses his arms.  He gazes up at Eliott with a grin.  “I still think we should’ve stopped for ice cream.  We’re in the middle of like, nowhere.”

Eliott snorts.  He points up, raising his eyebrows.  “Up there.”

And Lucas nearly dies.  “No.  No way.”

Eliott chuckles, nimbly hoisting himself up the tree.  Once he’s settled on the branch, he reaches a hand out to Lucas.  “Coming?” 

Lucas breathes in, then looks back up at Eliott.  He must look terrified, because Eliott softens, tilting his head while gazing at Lucas with that same unfamiliar expression.  But it feels nice.  It feels warm.

“I won’t let you fall,” Eliott says.

“I’m not worried about falling,” Lucas lies, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Eliott raises an eyebrow and Lucas sighs.  “Okay, okay, maybe a little.”

Eliott’s hand remains hanging in the air between them, and Lucas thinks of all the paths that’ve led up to this moment.  One Lucas’ for sure still sitting in the coffee shop, working on that god-awful arithmetic, and another Lucas’ probably sitting and playing video games at Yann’s.  And he’s sure there’s another Lucas out there, who’s refusing to step foot up the tree.  But dimly, Lucas hopes he’s the one who dares to climb up and reach for Eliott.

“Coming?”

Lucas nods, then reaches for Eliott’s hand, using his other hand to scramble up the trees, pushing himself up with his feet.  And when he sits next to Eliott on the branch, he feels Eliott’s hands steadying his shoulders.

“You okay?”

Lucas laughs.  “Never better.”  And it’s half true, as he doesn’t want Eliott’s hands to ever leave him.  He peeks a look down at the ground and covers his eyes.  “Ah, fuck.”

Eliott tilts up Lucas’ chin, then lets his hand fall back to his side.  “I find it better to not look back.”

Lucas furrows his eyebrows.  “Hm?”

“Don’t look down.”

“That makes me want to look down even more.”

“Well, don’t.”

“Why not?”

Eliott pouts.  “Well, don’t you want to look at me?”

And Lucas feels his stomach fluttering, and he nearly falls.  He latches his hands onto Eliott’s shoulder, steadying himself, and he blatantly realizes that he can feel Eliott’s chest shaking from laughing and he’s so warm, so warm.

Lucas can’t help his own laughter and everything feels so right, being up here with Eliott.  He tucks this memory away and fiercely thinks to himself that right now, he never wants to leave.

When Lucas sneaks a glance back at Eliott, Eliott’s eyes are closed, his head tilted up towards the sky.  Lucas looks at the way Eliott seems so serene, so peaceful, and he has to stop his heart from bursting as he looks at the hollow of his cheekbones and the way the sides of his lips are bunched up like he’s trying to suppress a smile.  And then those blue-gray eyes flash open, and Eliott’s smirking.  “Enjoying the view?”

Shit.

Lucas raises an eyebrow.  “I was, actually.”  Lucas feels a rush of pride at the way Eliott nearly blushes, obviously not expecting that.  “But there’s this big oaf who’s rudely blocking the Tour d’Eiffel —“

Eliott pokes him in the side, laughing.  “Fuck, you’re so mean!  You couldn’t let me have my moment?”

Lucas grins, staring up at Eliott like he’s his whole world.  And in a way, he is.  “Nope.”

Yes.

V.

When Lucas walks back to the coffee shop with Eliott to get his stuff, he says hello to Imane and smiles so brightly that Imane fixes him with the strangest look possible. 

“Oh, sorry,” Eliott says, “we’re closing up?”

Imane nods, tossing him the keys.  “You are.  I’m out of here.”

Lucas thinks to himself that he really, really owes Imane.  If this is what happens when he brings Imane lunch once, he’s going to bring her lunch again.  And again.

The doors of the coffee shop shut, and Eliott looks around.  “I guess it’s just us now.  I’ll just clean up real quick.”  He heads back behind the counter, out of sight.  “You can go if you want.”

Lucas shrugs, hopping up on the counter and swinging his legs.  He fiddles with the edge of his hoodie, shivering into it.  He’s not going to leave, not unless Eliott actually kicks him out. 

When Eliott finally emerges from the back room with a rag, his eyes widen as he sees Lucas.  “You’re still here?”

Lucas shrugs again.  “Don’t have anywhere else to go.”  He freezes, breath caught in his lungs.  “I mean, I meant, I don’t have anywhere else to be.  At the moment.”  

Eliott looks at Lucas for a while, running his fingers across his lips, contemplating.  And then he turns, wiping crumbs off the counter. 

“Need any help?” Lucas asks, anything to break the silence.  It’s unlike him to feel so nervous, and he doesn’t know why he keeps pulling at his fingers and his sleeves.

“No,” Eliott looks back up.  “Just sit there and look pretty.” 

“Shut up,” Lucas laughs, pulling out his phone.  He scrolls through the notifications, and dimly realizes that he doesn’t have Eliott’s phone number.  He looks up at Eliott, pondering.  And then he shakes his head, scrolling back through his phone. 

A notification unfolds from the top of the screen because Yann’s texted him, and he opens up his messages to see a string of chats between him and the rest of the boys. 

The message is clear.  All three are wondering why he’s been at the coffee shop the entire day instead of playing video games at home.  And all three think he’s hooked up with the mysterious, hot barista.

He sighs, typing out a message.

Lucas: I’m fine.  We’re just talking.

He shuts off his phone and slips it back into his pocket.  Lucas looks at the paintings hanging above the coffee shop, and he hums as Eliott stares momentarily at the one with the clouds and the sea. 

“What would it take for you to go to an art museum with me?” Eliott asks out of the blue, turning to look at Lucas.  He hums, thinking to himself.  “Actually,” he chuckles, “that wouldn’t work.” 

Lucas has a stroke of boldness, and he shakes his head.  “I’d go,” he says.  “But only if you promised to make out with me and hold my hand.”  

What.

He blinks.  He doesn’t know why he said that.

Fuck.  He needs to disappear.  Like now.

Eliott’s eyes widen, and he pauses, stunned.  Then he walks closer, smirk building at the corners of his lips.  He’s standing right in front of Lucas, hands falling to land on either side of the smaller boy.  “Hm.  As much as I’d love to, I told you it wouldn’t work.”  Eliott smiles sweetly.  “They said not to touch the masterpieces.  And you, baby, are definitely a masterpiece.”

Oh my god.  He didn’t.

Lucas squeaks.  Every ounce of him is on fire, burning with Eliott’s words and his gaze, and right now they’re so close that Lucas can see all the small flecks of blue in his beautiful eyes.  “You’re the masterpiece,” is all he can manage, looking down at his shoes.  He can’t look up at Eliott as he says it and thinks it’s strange that he’s speaking to the grubby tiles and his scuffed shoes. 

Eliott tilts Lucas’ head back up, gazing softly at him.  And Lucas is met again with those brilliant eyes.  “You’re adorable.  Did you know that?”   Eliott’s words wash over Lucas, and he’s about to actually melt until he registers exactly what’s been said.  

Oh, fuck no. 

And then he brings his knees up, blocking Eliott from moving forward.

“Adorable?  I’m a fucking masterpiece.”  Lucas glares, affronted.  “Don’t touch.”

It completely ruins the moment, and Eliott falls away from the counter, doubling over with laughter.  He’s smiling so hard it looks like he’s brimming with happiness, and he leans against one of the coffee tables, chuckling.  “Are you always so mean?”

Lucas sticks his chin up and stares up at Eliott, raising his eyebrows.  “Keep hanging out with me, and you’ll see.”

“Ah,” Eliott hums, reaching to mess with a strand of Lucas’ hair.  “I just might.”

“And,” Lucas adds, boldly, “don’t use cheesy pick-up lines.”

Eliott merely winks.

Lucas leaves the coffee shop that night with a promise of art museums and the lingering regret of an almost kiss.  If only he’d managed to keep his damn mouth shut.  But then he remembers the way Eliott messed with his hair, and he doesn’t really regret a thing.

part four

[paperficwriter]

Walk Like a Man

This fic was written for @a-strange-1ne, and I have a new rarepair, y’all. It’s set in a Quirkless AU for BNHA in which Uraraka, Midoriya and Iida are leaving their first year behind them and enjoying the high-life of the...non-freshman students. But on a trip to the local hang-out, they run into some trouble, and Iida’s going to have to deal with it.*

*he doesn’t want to

(Also, inspired by the Happy Days episode, “Our Gang.”)

Cut is for length, not for content.

"Whoa! This place looks amazing!”

The cafe wasn’t particularly busy, but there was just enough activity for Iida Tenya to narrow his eyes a bit. He didn’t quite share his companion Midoriya’s excitement. At least not yet. “I am not sure if this will be a suitable place for us to study.”

“Look!” He jerked as Ochako snagged his arm and pointed. “They have a bar with a conveyer belt! And it’s not just sushi!”

Indeed, the restaurant had been built close enough to Yuuei for it to be both accessible and not entirely inappropriate for them to be there unaccompanied. In fact, as they looked around, it became apparent that other people from their class as well as several more upperclassmen had decided to come by after classes ended for food and entertainment in the form of comics and video games.

“Oh my gosh!” Midoriya squeaked, immediately running over to the row of machines. “They have the new All Might Super Man Fighting Hero Deluxe Game! This hasn’t been released anywhere else yet!” Come to think of it, Iida noticed now that the whole place was themed around masked men and women. The walls were plastered with comic pages, and a huge bust of All Might towered over the center of the food prep station, where sushi, mochi, taiyaki and finger foods were placed to make their way around the track.

Iida set his jaw and sliced the air dramatically with his arm. “I do not know how anyone can be expected to study with so many distractions!” The potential for a new reading spot was, after all, how his comrades had gotten him to come along...

He had turned to leave just when he was beseeched upon by two pairs of large, sad eyes. “Iida-kun, please don’t go! Just stay for a little bit!” Uraraka begged.

“We’ve been waiting to be allowed in here since we were first years! Now that we’re not, we can finally get in!”

Iida took his glasses off and rubbed between his eyes. “How many times have I had to tell you that there has never been a moratorium on us coming into this establishment? There is no age limit or anything like that. We could have come any time!”

“Not without being boo’ed out! Remember, that happened with Mineta!”

Iida sighed. “I am not unconvinced that the same thing would not happen now, regardless of his class status.”

It was no use, though. Iida couldn’t say ‘no’ to his friends. Shifting his backpack, he walked over to an open booth and sat down while Ochako brought over several plates worth of food. Midoriya grabbed a bun and a manga he had found on one of the cafe’s shelves. Iida had just brought out his English language textbook when a voice behind him caught his ear. “Oi.”

He ignored it.

“Oi.”

Then, another, louder voice chimed in, closer tohis ear. “Dude, are you listening?! The boss is trying to get your attention!”

Now Iida did turn to regard the small collective of young men who had arrived at the table. They were all wearing school uniforms, but they were open, sleeves pulled up, pants loose. The one speaking was a blonde with a black stripe in his hair, who honestly had a face way too friendly to fit how he was trying to talk to Iida.

“Oh.” He turned to the tall, lanky boy beside him whose shaggy black hair was hanging around his face. Proximity seemed to make it logical that this was the one he was referring to. “I beg your pardon. How can I help you?”

Both of them exchanged a glance, and that’s when the angry bundle of fury in the form of crimson eyes and soft wild hair shoved them both out of the way, baring his teeth and glaring down at where Iida was sitting. “He meant me,” he said, an undercurrent of vicious indignation dangling under the surface of his voice like a blade.

“Kacchan!” Midoriya squeaked, bringing up the manga before realizing too late that there was no way to hide himself away from the other young man.

“Kacchan? Do you know this person, Midoriya?” Not that the angry, punkish boy looked like the type of person Midoriya would associate with…

“W-we went to Middle School together. He’s, um, he’s pretty rough, Iida…”

“Is this the delinquent kid you’ve talked about that gave you trouble, Deku?!” Uraraka put down one of the glass plates hard on the table as ‘Kacchan’ sneered at her.

“Where do you think he got that useless nickname from, roundface?” His cronies laughed at that, and she huffed in her seat. “And it’s Bakugou, by the way. Don’t call me by that stupid fucking kiddy name…”

At that, Iida finally rose and gesticulated wildly. Both the other boys in the black, open jackets and caps balled up their fists - did they think he was going to start a fight? - but Bakugou just raised an eyebrow. “I am Iida Tenya! And not only do I think you are terribly mean and rude, but also those uniforms are not appropriate attire, even when classes are over! Do you want to bring shame to your school?!”

“Like I give a shit what you think.” Bakugou curled his lip, cocking his chin to meet his eyes. He wasn’t saying it in a way that was exactly as crude as Iida would have expected, but he didn’t back down regardless.

“You should! You will never get into a respectable university or any other post graduate establishment if you act that way.”

Bakugou took a step closer, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Midoriya grab Uraraka’s arm. “You’re not going to live long enough to get home if you don’t clear out of my booth.”

Iida blinked, confused. The booth? “This type cafe does not have any system of assigned seats in it.”

Behind him, the two boys flanking Bakugou choked a little. “Damn right it does,” Bakugou growled.

“What is that?”

Iida jumped back, though more in disgust than fear, as Bakugou’s thick black shoe came down on the corner of the bench where he was sitting, sending little bits of detritus onto his school books. “I say where my gang sits, and everyone else gets the fuck out of dodge. Or else.”

It took every iota of self control for Iida not to immediately go about cleaning off his possessions. “Or else what?”

Bakugou glanced back at the other two, pupils small, brows knit, his eyes clearly communicating, ’Are you hearing this guy?’ “Or else we go.”

That still didn’t quite make sense to Iida. “Go where?”

The taller of the two lackeys laughed, and the shorter one with the stripe punched him in the side. Bakugou’s face flared into a dangerous shade of red. “We fight! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Iida chewed his bottom lip. Was this really worth all the effort? It was just a bench, after all. They could move. Before Iida could say anything, though, Uraraka shot back, “Fine! We’ll fight you!”

Midoriya seemed to disappear, escaping as quickly as possible for either the bathroom or the exit, Iida wasn’t sure which. “Uraraka!”

Bakugou nodded. “Fine. But one-on-one..” He knocked his chin at Iida, his eyes going cool. “Him and me.”

“Fine!”

“I have not agreed to anything!” Iida gesticulated again, like he could actually break the moment through force and speed of his hands. But even after a year, he should have known there was nothing to deter Uraraka when she had focused her gaze on a goal...

“Tonight at midnight,” Bakugou said, “at the park outside of campus.”

Iida balked. Suddenly the thought of ruining his good record was more important than the fact that he was giving this genuine consideration. “It is a school night! I cannot be out past curfew!”

This time, Bakugou actually smirked and chuckled, and as though that was permission enough, the two with him giggled as well. “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me with this...fine. Saturday, then.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Unless you’ve got plans…?”

Iida rubbed his chin. “I would have to make sure to finish my weekend studies early so I can have a nap, but--”

Bakugou turned on his heel. “I don’t give a shit what you have to do. Just be there.”

“He will!” Uraraka crowed in triumph.

Finally, the situation caught up with him. God, what had he just agreed to?!

---

“Is that seriously what you’re wearing?!”

Uraraka and Midoriya had agreed to walk with Iida to the meeting spot, and as they left campus under the bright streetlights, Iida nodded and straightened his suspenders. They were paired with black slacks and a white dress shirt, complete with a bowtie. “I want to look my best. And this is practical, because I would hate for my pants to droop. It also makes it less likely that I will be recognized. I do not want to embarrass the school with my tomfoolery.”

“It’s certainly...dapper, Iida…” Midoriya sighed. “You know you don’t have to do this.”

“Yeah, sorry for getting you into this, Iida.” Uraraka had cooled off within minutes of the encounter at the cafe, and ever since she had apologized profusely to Iida for goading Bakugou.

“Please, do not worry, either of you,” Iida said with a decisive chop of his arm. “I do not actually think this will come down to fisticuffs.” He certainly hoped, anyway…

When they arrived at the park, Bakugou was already there, alone. He was dressed down (not that that was much of a surprise, compared to Iida), with a black shirt and jeans. He looked up and locked eyes with Iida and for a second, he seemed different from the delinquent at the cafe: young and rough around the edges, sure, but also...tired.

He bristled when he saw Midoriya especially. “It’s just us, remember? Fuck off, shitty Deku.”

Midoriya was ready to fully comply, but Uraraka grabbed his shirt. “We’ll be nearby, okay? Just call.”

Iida smiled. “I will.”

They watched together as the two walked away, and when they disappeared beyond the curve of the path, Bakugou finally said, “I didn’t actually think you’d show up.” Did he sound impressed? It was hard to tell. It could have just been cocky.

Iida nodded. “I said that I would.”

When Bakugou stood up, Iida raised his fists and hunched his back a bit. The other young man immediately laughed. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I-I am preparing myself in case you just go at me. I learned this stance from several reputable boxing tutorials on the Internet!”

“You still have your damn glasses on!” He smirked. “What? Do you think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re a guy wearing glasses?”

“What? No! I need them to see! How can I do anything if I cannot see?!”

Bakugou kicked at something on the ground. He didn’t seem to be in a rush to fight… “Dumbass. Why did you even agree to this if you don’t know how to fight? Have you ever even been in a fight before?”

“Of course not! Why would I have?” Iida relaxed just a little bit.

“Don’t you do any sports at that fancy school of yours?”

Iida scratched at the back of his head, suddenly feeling sheepish. He was hoping they would be able to talk things out, but talking like this wasn’t exactly what he thought it would be. It felt like Bakugou was trying to get to know him. Not that he minded, but… “Yes. Track and field. Mostly running. Cross country, sprinting, that kind of thing.”

Bakugou glanced up, jutting his jaw out a little bit. It was almost like he was trying to compensate for his short stature compared to Iida. “But you didn’t run from me.”

“No.” Iida took a breath. “But it is sort of like track, I suppose...coach tells us that it is better for us to run like we are heading toward something rather than away.” He gestured, palm against his chest, the other straight out. “Always approach your goal. Run to those ahead of you, and forget the ones behind.”

“Tch.” Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Running his thumbs up and down his suspenders, Iida paused a moment and then chanced asking, “Is it true? That you bullied Midoriya at your old school?”

Bakugou brought a foot up and down to crush a can sitting by the bench. It flattened under him. “Fucking Deku…” His voice curled with his mouth, disgustedly, but he didn’t raise his gaze from the ground. “He was always following me around like a yappy fucking dog, and one time I tried to scare him off. And it worked.”

“You...don’t sound proud of that.”

“What’s it to you?!” Bakugou stepped hard toward him, and Iida raised his fists again. But he just got close, like he had expected Iida to back off. When he didn’t, they ended up precariously hovering in each other’s space, where Iida could see Bakugou’s eyes shining red in the light overhead as he was forced to crane his neck back to glare.

Iida was the first to break the intense eye contact that had started cemeting between them. “Are we…?”

“What?”

“Are we going to fight?”

Bakugou puffed out a breath through his nose, body relaxing. “It wouldn’t even be a fight. It would be a murder.”

“I would not go that hard on you.”

Bakugou laughed again. He didn’t seem so menacing when he laughed, and Iida liked that (more than he probably should have, he thought, giving himself a little mental kick). “Gee, thanks, four-eyes.”

“Do you really fight all that much?” Iida asked carefully. Every question seemed to take more than a lion’s share of caution.

Shrugging, Bakugou walked over to the vending machine across the path. He fished a few coins out of his pants pocket - he could probably use some suspenders too, Iida thought to himself - and then pointed at the buttons. Was that…an offer? Bakugou gestured again with a growl, and Iida came forward quickly, pressing the button for an orange drink. Once he seemed satisfied, Bakugou said, “Most people don’t show up. I have a reputation.”

“When was the last time you even struck someone?”

“What the fuck do I look like? A goddamn desk calendar?” Even though Bakugou gave him another toothy, growling snap, this time Iida just let it roll off his back. “Those assholes just think it’s cool that I’m so scary to everyone. It’s such bullshit. I hate it.”

A wind blew through the corridor of the park, and Bakugou shivered. Iida scooted a little closer to him, until their legs were touching. The night was cool and quiet. “You do not have to posture all the time.”

“You don’t know me.”

“No, but you seem like someone who could be worth getting to know, especially since what I have known has been so...obviously wrong.” Bakugou didn’t reply, but he also didn’t leave, so Iida pressed on. “Are you in school?”

“Yeah. Duh.”

“Where?”

“Yuuei.” At Iida’s gasp of surprise, Bakugou slouched, mumbling, “‘m in the advanced classes with, like, these two fuckin’ rich preppies. And they’re only half day. The rest is independent studies. So Soy Sauce Head and Pikachu think I’m a drop-out. Idiots.”

Iida couldn’t help it. He let out a snort of laughter, and when Bakugou narrowed his eyes at him and told him to shut up, he just doubled over. “You wear a variation of our city’s standard school uniform! How could they not know?!”

Bakugou’s mask of anger broke a bit, and he chuckled. “They think I’m trying to look the delinquent part. Like it’s my style.”

“That is so silly!” Iida finally straightened again and when he finished his drink, he tossed it into the bin. “Well, if we are not going to fight, would you maybe like to go get something to eat?”

Bakugou stared at him as he seemed to consider what he was saying, then squinted. “Not too late for you, nerd?”

Oh, right. It was after midnight, wasn’t it? “I...was too nervous to eat. I suppose I lost track of the time.”

“Feh.” Bakugou stepped toward him and raised his knuckles. This time, Iida didn’t even flinch, and he grazed his chin with them softly; harder than a glance yet not anything like a punch. “Fine. C’mon. I know a place. But you’re buying.”

In perhaps the only semblance of manhandling during the whole fight, Bakugou hooked Iida’s suspenders with his fingers and dragged him away.   

[sparda3g]

Why The Hype: Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime Debut

The anime television premiere is on the horizon. As a manga reader, I can safely say I am completely hyped. There’s a clear sign that it has a wealthy marketing in Japan; from early merchandises to premiere in theaters with 5 episodes. That’s very assuring. But why should we set our calendar for an anime debut of a Weekly Shounen Jump work? What can it offer to excite us? Why the hype? Allow me to explain.

1) A Simple Engaging Story

If you’re curious already, by now you should have read the synopsis. A young boy, Tanjiro, takes care of his family after his father’s passing; happily living together as lovely family. Tragedy struck when he finds his home attacked, leaving no one alive except for his sister Nezuko. However, she is no longer a human, but a demon. This is the cruel reality where demons lurk and kill humans.

It may not be original in premise, including trying to save his sister, but much like many other series, it’s the journey that makes it appealing. It’s not a journey with fun and games, but a harsh and terrifying survival. It’s not always incredibly dark as the trailers didn’t show much of its humor and light-hearted tone, but the path remain cruel and fearsome. Dark doesn’t make it engaging; it’s the characters’ feelings and progression that make it work.

It’s an engaging progression that slowly builds the protagonist and others to believable strong slayers. On one hand, it could be problematic for some as the series has a slow start, but the very beginning gives enough reason to believe why it will take time to develop. The anime is set to produce 26 episodes. Rather than cut short and wonder if the series has more to offer, newcomers would receive a better judgment with its slow crawl to triumphant and rewarding development. Not only they grow strong, but their maturity and challenge grow as their road leaves more to walk down.

2) Dreary, Grim, and Absorbing Atmosphere

The trailers have shown some terrifying experiences with demons lurking, fight to survive. That is accurate. It is not to say this series is unique with its violent and bone-chilling nature, including with The Promised Neverland recently debuted under the same publication. However, while that said series is more of a thriller and mind game, this is more of a Battle Shounen centric that meets horror, which could be a good change of pace for some newcomers. Think of Uncharted series and The Last of Us series. One is explosive fun and the other is gritty. The latter is this series.

Its environment can leave you unnerving. The forest never felt so terrifying, but this will certainly remind you on why. The environment extend beyond trees, but I won’t ruin your anticipation. The danger is fully realized. Once you adapt the harshness, you can believe just about every danger that can end a life or heavily wound a person. Even when not in combat, the danger can stem from the unknown. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and pray it’s only your imagination.

It’s not all dark however. The trailers may not show much, but there are light-hearted and humor portions that will put you at ease. Fortunately, the comedy is pretty funny and while I can’t guaranteed on the adaptation, there’s a special charm to its art in humor. You will have to watch and see what I mean. Don’t worry; the shifting tone is necessarily timed well; doesn’t take you out of the tension. What I’m looking forward to the most is the original soundtrack. Although we only got small samples from trailers and some other tidbits, it already has tons of promises. With very promising composers, Yuuki Kaijura and Go Shiina, guys that brought you Fate and Tales of series, they have the magic to convey the emotion and nature of its world.

All in all, the atmosphere will absorb you, despite its violent nature. That begs the question. Why on Earth is this series compared to Goblin Slayer? I am positive it’s not just because the title “Slayer.” It’s due to how violent it is. Seriously. Oh well. I heard worse I suppose.

3. Compelling Characters

Tanjiro is the protagonist of the story. Personally, he is the best in Weekly Shounen Jump today. He’s like a hybrid of two types of Shounen protagonist. One is the badass killer, for good intention at least. The other is lovable, caring, and somewhat merciful guy. Naruto gets a knack with its comical trope, “Talk-no-Jutsu.” Tanjiro has a similar field, but rather than converting his enemy, he sends them off in a peaceful manner, depending on the circumstance. I won’t reveal his nature entirely, but it’s the best kind of balance.

More importantly, his journey is what stands out. You can grasp his inexperience fighting skill and reactions when he first encounter a demon. The more the series progress, the more his body language and mindset developed. It sounds basic on paper, but the execution is astounding. His progression, as well as other characters, is what makes the slow burn worth going through. The reward system of development keeps it rich, so you will always find yourself rooting for him.

There are three other characters: Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. I won’t go into greater details, but each of them offer a unique style of combat and personality. Nezuko is interesting because of her demonic nature. The way how it conveys her struggle in more ways than simply seen as an enemy is compelling. She’s a heroine and don’t worry, she won’t disappoint. Zenitsu is a comic relief, though got some cool perks, and Inosuke is amusingly wild. As side characters, they get the most focus, and they are a lot of fun.

Speaking of characters, there will be more on the horizon judging by a poster. I won’t talk about them, but they are definitely interesting. It’s uncertain where the anime ends at, but whoever gets on screen, they will leave an impact. The best part is how the series treat them very well. Some series tend to leave majority of the cast in the background as a running gag, but here, depending on the focus, they have layers and backstories to care. Bottom line, they will deliver their share of greatness.

4) Thought-provoking and Enticing Action

The trailers are more or less teasing the action. From what they have shown, they only show small glimpse of what it is truly like. There will be some flashy action such as Water Breathing Technique in which you will learn during the runtime, but more importantly and rightfully so, it focus more on the substance. It isn’t about explosion or how cool the attack looks; it’s all about the swordplay.

There’s a good amount of slick choreograph to enjoy and with the animation looking incredibly promising by the trailers and feedbacks from the movie premiere, it’s safe to say it’s going to captivate you. The other neat feature is the variety of the battle. It’s not going to simply resort to stronger enemy by strength only. There will be ones that are puzzling, tricky, and creative with its design and attack. It’s like fighting against a boss in an action video game; there’s always a new challenge to deal with.

The best part of its action is how it focus on the tactical move and the mind. It’s about how to strike down the enemy despite at a disadvantage state or how to survive the onslaught. Rarely, the good guy overpowers the enemy, so it’s rewarding when they succeed on winning. The other part is the mind. It becomes unnerving when you pay close attention to their action that is complemented by their train of thoughts. It can get heart-pounding whenever they feel fear such as a rookie mistake, or how they can win and survive. Its core of battle remain strong and evolve whenever a character develops. Every time there is one, a new obstacle awaits.

While the action isn’t about flashiness, the impact however packs a lot of punch. A strike can mean so much because how it truly feels painful or how they react to the damage that slowly eats their courage away. Even during a normal skirmish, it still leaves weight to their action. It has its rewards and consequences. In short, the action can be seriously fantastic. With the animation this mesmerizing, the sound department leaving strong impact, appealing characters, and the weight behind the battle, you will not want to stop watching.

This is Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Wrought Iron Machine (Part 21)

Azula and Zuko haven’t heard from or seen their father since the show. It is no comfort for Azula who is waiting for something to happen. A death threat, a thrown fireball, anything. But the man doesn’t show. It leaves Zuko twice as jittery, he frequently mentions his scar itching--some sort of phantom sensation that seems to arise whenever he is anxious.

Eventually TyLee’s need to be comforting overpowers her need to hold a grudge. She sits herself down next to Azula who only briefly glances up. Tylee doesn’t speak and simply ties a pink ribbon into Azula’s hair. She doesn’t fancy the color but she accepts her girlfriend’s gesture anyhow. TyLee braids the former princess’ hair and kisses the top of her head.

“What do you think he wants?” Zuko’s booing voice spoils the peace.

“To fuck with us, what do you think?” Azula asks.

“I think that he finally saw our videos and…”

“And what?” Azula questions. “Do you still pine for his approval, because I don’t.” Maybe if she says it enough, she will believe it.

“What do you think he’s going to do?”

Azula shrugs. She supposes that if they stick to the Earth Kingdom that he can do nothing, it is out of his rule. But they are in the Fire Nation. Perhaps his worry isn’t unfounded. Just like that she finds it curious that they are permitted to perform in the Fire Nation. She wonders what his game is. Perhaps it is fame alone that leaves them untouchable; the notion that his reputation would be in tatters if harm came to she or Zuko by his hand. That there would be outcry if they were banned from performing. He can’t afford such in a day and age in which electing rulers seemed to be becoming commonplace.

She hopes that such a breed of paranoia will keep him at bay.

Agni forbid she and Zuko have to fight the man. She can’t imagine that a spat between royal family members--in exhil or not--would go over well with the public.

Intimidation, it must be.

She hopes so.

.oOo.

Kuvira paces around the bedroom she shares with P’Li. The woman in question had wandered onto the balcony for a smoke. Thank Raava, the woman would surely be annoyed by Kuvira’s relentless unrest. Back and forth she walks with her thoughts, but she can’t escape them.

She isn’t sure which news to break first. Her hand absently makes its way to her slight baby bump. She thinks that it might be easier to announce the baby first, to explain why she is withdrawing from Southern Air Sounds.  But then, it isn’t any of their business is it, that she is going to be a mother. She may as well just let them assume that Baatar’s departure is the cause of the withdrawl.

It isn’t a full blown lie. It isn’t a lie at all. It is simply a fraction of the whole truth.

Kuvira hears the door slam, and she gives a start. “Raava, do you have to slam it!?” She snaps, with a reeling sensation she notes that she sounds like her mother. It is almost enough to bring tears to her eyes. Raava forbid she treats her child as her mother treated her. She rubs at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Sorry.” P’Li mumbles half-sarcastically and half-genuinely.

She reeks of smoke and Kuvira feels almost dizzy with the scent. Much to the annoyance of the woman who has just entered, Kuvira continues her restless pacing. She only brings herself to a halt when P’Li physically obstructs her path. “The fuck is going on with you?” P’Li grumbles.

“I think that you already know.”

P’Li grabs her by the shoulders and forces her into a chair. “Talk.”

Kuvira crosses her arms, determined to hold the type of silence usually upheld by Ming.

“Talk.” P’Li repeats.

She wants to. She really does. “Baatar quit.”

“And…”

“So do I.” She replied quietly.

“Quit what? Your own fuckin’ band? Southern Air Sounds?” Now P’Li has her arms folded over her chest as well.

“Both.”

“Why?” P’Li demands.

“I have other things to take care of.” Kuvira replies flatly. P’Li stares at her and she knows that the firebender wants some elaboration. Kuvira crosses one leg over the other and stares at the hands she has positioned on her knee.

“Fine.” P’Li shrugs, she turns around.

“Wait!” Kuvira isn’t yet ready to elaborate though. But it is enough to keep P’Li from leaving. The woman pulls up another chair. She supposes that if there’s anyone she can speak with it is P’Li. Kuvira shifts in her chair.

“What other things do you have to take care of?”

For an answer she simply moves her hand from her knee to her belly.

“Does Baatar know?”

“No.” She replies. “I don’t know if he should.”

“He should.” P’Li states. She leaves no room for protest. “And you’re not withdrawing from the contest.”

“That’s not up to you.”

“I need this.” P’Li pushes. “This band is everything. If you just throw it away, what are the other two and I supposed to do?” She pauses. “You need Southern Air Sounds.”

Kuvira rubs at her temples, she doesn’t appreciate the demands. “I need to be able to take care of a child.”

“Which is why you’re going to win the prize money and the fame to be able to.” P’Li insists.

Those are pretty words, but she doesn’t quite believe them. It will be a waste of time and energy to perform without their original lineup. She has already set the band up to fall. “There’s no point, P’Li.”

“I just told you what the point is.”

“I have to put the baby first.”

“And you can do that by attending S.A.S.” They are going in circles.

Kuvira has been holding so much inside and it finally pushes its way out. “Of course you would think that. You didn’t think twice before putting your baby down.” She says with a poison.

Pure rage flickers on P’Li’s face for an instant before her expression goes blank. “Fuck you.” She stands with a force that knocks the chair to the ground. With the slam of a door, Kuvira knows that she has pushed out the last of her allies.

.oOo.

Azula still wears the ribbon that TyLee braided into her hair while she is on stage. It doesn’t exactly fit the aesthetic but Zuko and Mai had begged her for a less intense performance. The clashing ribbon reminds her that they are taking it easy tonight.

As easy Azula can take a performance anyways.

It is going mostly well. They have opted out of kissing on stage this time, not overdoing it is the key. Another scream tears from her throat, vicious and powerful. The sort that will bring Fire Of Agni their reward.

She looks up and spots him again.

Ozai stares at she and Zuko.

This time Zuko doesn’t see him.

She will let him have his cozy ignorance.

Azula tries to dwell only on the music. It is surprisingly easy to forget about her father when her voice strains and falters. It is the first time she has struggled to get a verse out. Perhaps she has been doing too many shows after all. Her face flushes and she hopes that the blunder has gone unnoticed.

She tries to push through, all the while her throat begs for mercy. Dread settles in and she tries to cast it aside. This has happened before, all it takes is a steaming cup of tea to make it right.

The song doesn’t finish soon enough, but when it does she speaks, “we’re going to change things up a little.” She mostly says it to address her bandmates. “Since we’ve taken a break from the theatrics, we’re going to perform a song we don’t usually sing live.”  She has learned this time around and has left herself a collection of ballads with smoother vocals as well as a remake of an older song where both she and Zuko sing with clean vocals. The announcement is well-received. She waits for the applause to die down before starting the song.

Her throat is pulsing by the time she finishes the show and they still have to stick around for autographs. Again security is tighter than usual. Their presence alone seems to speed this little meet and greet up.

It isn’t until she and Zuko are finally getting comfortable that Ozai makes his appearance. Her bodyguards edge closer. “What do you want?” She asks in a dangerously low tone.

“I’m just here to witness the failure. That is all.” He replies.

So intimidation it is.

“I’d like to see the exact moment when you realize that you need me. I’d like to be there to see the precise minute when you realize that you’ve made a mistake following your brother…”

Zuko goes rigid beside her.

“He is a lost cause, but you? You can make something of yourself. Something worthwhile.” He reaches a hand out but her body guards come to stand in front of her. “Honestly.” He chuckles. “Have you really resorted to having others fight your battles?”

“This isn’t a battle.” The remark is just as much for him as it is for her body gurads who step back.

Ozai’s hands are back at his sides. “Not at all.” He agrees. “It is an invitation, come back home and we’ll pretend like this mess has never happened.”

Azula swallows. Isn’t that what she wants, normalcy? Stability? She can have it. She can hand Fire Of Agni to Zuko and have her father’s love and respect back. TyLee curls her fingers around Azula’s hand. “What about TyLee and Mai?”

“They are free to come home with you.” Ozai’s lip curves up. A vicious sort of curl. “Of course you can stay here and I’ll be in the crowd watching you fall with your leech of a brother.”

TyLee squeezes her hand harder and Zuko looks devastated. Devastated and betrayed and she hasn’t even made a decision. She thinks of the girl who she slipped her number to, the very same girl who had almost killed herself. She thinks of how many other people put such faith in their music. She has come this far… “that is fine father, I would like you to see our victory.”

.oOo.

The pen quivers in Kuvira’s hand as she tries to come up with an adequate way to word her resignation letter. She thinks that perhaps it is selfish. But it is the most selfless, selfish thing she has ever done. She doesn’t like to sacrifice her bandmates at the expanse of her baby, but they can take care of themselves. Her child-to-be can’t. Still, it is hard to come up with anything to write when her head is so full of other things.

She runs a hand through her tangled locks. Strands of hair tumble into her tired eyes. She has tried to resume conversation with P’Li but the woman is unshakably pissed and it seemed as though she has poisoned the opinions of Ghazan and Ming. She supposes that the venom isn’t unjustified.

Still she can’t fathom why they are still lurking in her loft. The one she is paying for on her own. She doesn’t have the fight or the heart to throw them out.

Kuvira sets the pen down and curls herself up on her bed. She feels sick and sorrowful. Everything is falling apart and she knows for sure that it had, in fact, been Baatar who kept the band in good trajectory. She may have started the band but it is his.

She reaches a solution, one that can satisfy everyone. She forces herself out of the bed and into the living room.

“You finally going to tell us that we’re withdrawing from Southern Air…” Ghazan starts.

It takes a degree of willpower to tell him that he had been too lazy to do anything more than halfway before the possibility of withdrawal. Instead she says, Yes, that’s what I am here to talk to you about.”

Ming glowers at her, shaping a pair of watery arms just so that she can fold them over her chest in disappointment.

“I’m turning the rights to the band over to Baatar. You all can carry on and I’ll take care of my...of what I need to take care of.”  Kuvira says with as much stoicism as she can muster. A month will leave them with ample time to adjust. She can’t imagine that the fandom will miss her too much, they seem to vastly prefer Baatar. “I’ll discuss the matter with him.” Like P’Li, she leaves no room for objection nor further discussion in general. She can’t keep her composure long enough to do so.

As soon as she reaches her room and locks the door she slides down to the floor and releases much of the pent up tension. Her cries are as quiet as she can make them and rather breathy. She crawls her way to the phone and picks it up. She dials Baatar’s number and fights to level her voice before the man picks up.

She almost has herself moderately compoused when his greeting comes through. She takes an extra second as he repeats his hello twice. Quickly, before he can hang up, she returns the greeting.

“Kuvira?” He asks, she can’t assess his tone.  

“Yes, it’s me.” She confirms.

“What do you want?” This, she can tell, is annoyance.

“I wanted to…” She trails off. “I’m going to sign the band over to you. I can’t go to Southern Air Sounds but the other three, they need it.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” Baatar questions.

“I just…” she pulls the phone away from her mouth as she chokes up. “I just can’t do it right now.” She can’t keep her voice from cracking as she adds, “I have other things to take care of.”

He doesn’t miss the hitch in her voice. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” She tries, her voice cracking again. She sets the phone to the side again and chokes out another sob accented with a soft sniffle. She wipes at her eyes with the back of her hands. She picks up the phone again and says with more clarity, “I’m fine.”

It isn’t enough clarity to keep him from asking, “are you crying?”

“No.” Almost involuntarily she lets a cry escape her parted lips. The tears slip down her cheeks and drip off of her chin.

“You’re crying.”

“No.”  She slams the phone on the receiver only to hear it ringing. She brings her pointer and thumb to her forehead and lets it ring as the cries overtake her in full. The phone doesn’t stop its incessant ringing and finally she picks it up. “Leave me alone!” She is about to slam it down when she hears him ask, “am I going to have to come over there?”  

“No.”

But she wants him to so badly. She misses having him cuddle up in her arms. She misses the closeness.

She hangs up again.

.oOo.

Zuko is still staring at her has their tour bus departs. They are all staring at her, really. But Zuko stares the most intensely  and the most slack jawed. It is enough to make her forget about her aching throat. Finally she has enough, “what?” She hisses, her voice still strained.

“Y-you chose me?”

Azula rolls her eyes. “I absolutely did not.” She doesn’t think that she has convinced anyone. “I chose my dignity and independence.”

“And Zuko!” TyLee throws her hands up in excitement. “You chose us.” She tosses said hands around Azula and nuzzled her cheek against the firebender’s.

“Stop it, Ty.” Azula grumbles. But TyLee does not cease her fluff and cuddles.

“She chose us, Mai.”

Mai mirrors Azula’s eye roll, a faint hint of amusement tugging her lip upwards at her band mate’s current TyLee induced predicament.

“Will you let go if I say that I chose you guys?” Azula’s voice comes out distorted by the way TyLee’s face was smushing against hers. TyLee nods and Azula caves. “Alright, I chose Zuko and Mai.”

“And TyLee!?” TyLee beams.

“Nope, just Zuko and Mai.”

“Hey!” TyLee pouts and softly thumps Azula’s shoulder.

Azula gives a soft snicker.

“His face was priceless.” Zuko comments, allowing for her snicker to become less soft. “I hope that it ends up in the papers.”

“Let’s just make sure we win in front of him.”

.oOo.

He finds Kuvira curled up in a corner. Her hair is a mess and her cloths are disheveled. He sweeps his fingers through his hair. He knew that she was crying on the phone but he didn’t expect her to be such a mess. Getting closer only reveals more signs of distress. Her eyes are dull and accented with light bags. She hasn’t bothered to change out of her pajamas. He hopes that she has only been wearing them for a day or two.

He doesn’t know how to open the conversation, he knows exactly what’s wrong and he knows why she didn’t call sooner. With nothing else to say he opens with those questions anyways. He doesn’t expect her to tell him that she didn’t want to bother him.

He knows it would be a lie to tell her that it wouldn’t have bothered him. He picks his words carefully. “It wouldn’t have bothered me if you told me you were upset.”

“I’m not upset.” She insists. “I’m angry.”

He rolls his eyes and nearly sighs. “I think that you confuse anger and sadness.” He knows that she does, he also knows that she cries when she’s angry. But he has learned to differentiate between the rage crying and the mournful ones.

He stoops down and carries her onto her bed. She is some heavier than he recalls. He brushes her hair behind her ears. “Talk to me.” He says taking her hand. He is treading in dangerous waters. If he isn’t careful…

He groans to himself because he already knows that he is being pulled back. She hasn’t even tried to guilt trip him and he is being pulled back. Perhaps her lack of guilting is precisely why he isn’t trying to resist.

But of course she isn’t trying for a guilt trip, because she isn’t trying for anything save for, maybe, slowing her tears. Other than that, she is silent. “Tell me what’s going on he tries again.” Cupping his hand over the one she has positioned on her belly seems to somehow open the floodgates. Her weeping becomes that much more intense and is intermingled with babbled words he can’t make out. He lets her ramble like that, simply stroking her hand until she finishes.

He feels awkward in asking her to repeat herself with more clarity.

With a whispered, ‘fuck’, she wipes her eyes with the hand he isn’t holding. “I can’t do this Baatar.” Is all she says.

He realizes that they have an audience now. Ming and Ghazan peer into the room. They exchange concerned glances. They only leave when P’Li scowls, nudges them both, and scolds them for peeping.

“What can’t you do?”

“Anything.”

“Can you be less vague?”

“I can’t go to Southern Air Sounds. I can’t manage the band on my own...I can’t manage it at all.” He opens his mouth to speak but Kuvira continues first. “My idea didn’t even work…” She mumbles something else. Something that had probably degraded her idea.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s not true.”

“If it’s not true then why have these new songs gotten less views than the first ones did when they first came out?” Kuvira asks. “Lately we’ve only received negative reception.”

“Your idea wasn’t dumb.” He insists.

“Prove it!” She demands.

He pushes out another sigh. “They’re just not used to me not being there. It doesn’t have anything to do with your idea.”

His words only help until she comes to another conclusion. “They don’t like me.”

“T-that’s not true.” He stammers.

“You don’t like me.”

“Also not true.” He sputters with more intensity. He lifts her into his arms and props her head up against his shoulder. “I’m just...you’re frustrating sometimes. You always have to have it your way and…” He knows that now isn’t the time to make accusations. He tries to backpedal. “And my ideas have always been shot down, ever since I was a kid. I’m not the most confident person.”

Her crying seems to slow but she her words remain dismal. “You left me. Everyone leaves me.”

“I didn’t…” He stops himself because he did. He had left her.

“My parents, you, P’Li…”

A light bang tells Baatar that P’Li hasn’t left. He steals a glance at the doorway where P’Li has her head pressed against the wall in exasperation, Ming and Gazahn snickering.

“I assure you, P’Li is still very much here.” He tries to make light of things.

Kuvria tosses a pillow at the door, with it fully shut again she metalbends the lock in place, ignoring Gazhan’s protests.

“I’m still here.”

“You’re going to leave again.” Part of him thinks that he should. But he can’t imagine doing so when she looks so fragile.

“I can’t leave.” He forces a smile. “We have a lot to catch up on.”

She doesn’t speak.

“You have to decide which verses of the new songs I get to sing. And I think that we have time to remake at least one music mover before Southern Air Sounds.”

“It’ll be an awful, half-assed video.”

“Then we’ll just have to rely on my sex appeal.” He wriggles his brows. “Apparently the fandom loves me.”

Kuvira looks anything but amused.

“We’ll figure something out. Something that we both like?”

Kuvira wipes her eyes a final time and sits herself upright. She gives a firm nod before opening her notebook.

“You just get right to it, don’t you?” He allows her to distract herself, deciding that he will get better conversation with her when she relaxes more or less in full.

“You’re not leaving?” She asks again.

“I’m not leaving.” He confirms, giving her ear a kiss. “I shouldn’t have left the first time.” He hopes that she will have a good apology for him. He supposes that she has already admitted that she was wrong. He won’t push for an apology yet.

Some of the tension leaves her body, as though he has taken some sort of unseen weight off of her. “Good, because I need you.”

“Yeah the band isn’t quite the same…” he tries to joke.

“I need you.”

He supposes that, that is better than an apology. Much better. “How about we write a song and plan a video together. We can talk more after that.”  He thinks that it will help to build up some cooperation and compromising before diving into personal matters that will require a whole lot of that. She nods in agreement, a good sign.

[eugh-cooties]

On the Naughty List: Chapter 1

Pairing: Kustard Warnings: Explicit sexual content, +18 audiences, non-con/dub-con Archive Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423903/chapters/41019230

Description: It’s Christmas night and Sans helps shortcut his friends into the New Ebott Mall after being coerced into having some fun. It’ll be fine they said. They knew the guy working the night shift. They’re only gonna get a drunk, play some games and badly sing some carols.

That’s all. It’ll be fun, right?

It hadn't been his idea to take a shortcut into the mall, but hey, ‘tis the season. His small group of friends had been wandering around in the snow, throwing the occasional snowball at each other, and getting absolutely giddy when it started snowing more. Then when one mentioned to the whole, that he had ties with a security guard, Joey, on shift at Ebott Mall and they could possibly get access into it, to get out of the snow for awhile. Most, after hearing that, had turned to Sans, who looked awfully bashful at the idea of breaking into the shopping mall.

“Heya Sansy,” one of his friends had started off with. “-you know that little trick you do sometimes, when you disappear? Well how about, as a present, you help us into the mall. We'll pay you back for it.” Sure it seemed simple enough, but the skeleton worried about being found out, not to mention the mall had cameras. The one who had the connection told Sans that he texted him and the security guard didn't mind it at all and he would tamper with the video feed for them while they were there.

Sans still worried that police would be called or something would go wrong and he could not have that on his record. His worries however were shooed off when the group started calling him a pansy and a chicken. He'd show them, Sans didn't back down after the name calling, and instead he agreed. Sure his hands were clammy and he was nervous, but he also didn't want them to think less of him just because he got cold feet.

The trip had taken less than a minute, only able to bring in one at a time through his shortcuts. Any more than that would leave him too drained to bring them out. The whole place was at least warmer than it was outside where the snow was falling heavier. Perhaps this was a good idea, he definitely didn't want anyone getting a cold.

It had been worth it, he realized, when he saw how ecstatic his friends were, and they practically praised Sans for going through with it. It boosted his ego a bit, though he couldn't help but feel a little jittery at the quietness of the shopping center. The whole place had been decorated for the season, with long ribbons hanging from the ceiling and ornaments dangling in between. They looked to be as big as his skull. Not to mention on the railings there were glimmering lights and tinsel covered garlands. He momentarily got distracted by the festive sights and almost missed that his friends were walking off without him.

“guys wait up, don't leave me all a-bone!” he called out and quickly chased after the group. One had groaned at the joke while the others laughed it off and they went on their merry way. They had planned things accordingly in the time they were walking. The plan was simple, food, drinks, and then games.

They went straight to the food court first and nearly had to beg Sans to go buy alcohol and bring it back. The smaller only agreed because he was in desperate need of a drink now to calm his nerves. So while he was away for a minute or two the group had gotten into one of the shops for snacks as they waited for Sans to come back.

When the drinks arrived, the real fun began. Sans’ worries went straight down the drain as he drank. Someone had started singing carols, and the rest had joined in on the fun. After that though their games got a bit more rambunctious and daring with a game of truth or dare.

As always, the game started off simple enough but as the night went on the dares got out of hand until someone had the audacity to dare Sans to go into the lingerie shop and come out with something on, of his choice, under his clothes. It just had to be him too, only because the others had thought it would be hilarious to see a skeleton in lingerie. He ended up doing it anyways while the others stayed up in the food court laughing their asses off.

The trip hadn't been so simple though. Sans had never once stepped into a shop like this and he knew next to nothing about what kinds of lingerie there were. So he grabbed the first thing that caught his eye and he stumbled into a dressing room to put on a lace blue thong. After nearly falling over twice while trying to put on the offending garment he put his jeans back on and looked at himself in the mirror. Nothing was noticeable which was fine. He did what he had to do, so afterwards he took a shortcut to the outside of the door of the lingerie shop, and he stumbled towards where he thought his friends were.

He had been feeling drained after so many shortcuts in one evening, so he could definitely walk the rest of the way without getting lost. The eerie atmosphere around him was getting to his head once again though. Sans gulped and glanced around, forgetting that his friends were waiting for him. His vision currently wasn't the best it could be as he stumbled into a trash can he thought was a few feet in front of him. It made quite a bit of noise and he shushed the can meekly and wandered on, not wanting to be caught by anyone even though the security guard was off in some room on the other side of the mall.

After about five minutes Sans realized he was sort of lost. He had to be near the middle of the mall by now, and tucked in the back he could made out some distinct white and red striped shapes. Candy canes. He slowly made his way over to it and leaned on the cane for support, only to immediately realize it wasn't secured to the ground and he collapsed on the floor with a groan. Sans rolled onto his back and sighed as he turned to glare at the plastic candy cane. “Ya twisted bastard.” he growled and immediately pushed the cane away and slowly sat up. His head was pounding as his nerves came back and he finally accepted that he was a bit lost.

He got back to his feet and nearly jumped out of his bones when something went off behind him and he ran, nearly tripping, towards a nearby pillar. He caught his breath from behind there and continued to listen. The sound went off every couple of minutes, it sounded like jingling bells and a glittering sound effect. He finally looked back and saw between the two candy canes, and down a fuzzy red carpet, there was a machine. The machine was making the noise he realized.

Sans groaned to himself and walked over to the machine, feeling so stupid all of a sudden. He ended up chuckling it off when he realized what the machine was for though. It was a painted machine with the words ‘Naughty or Nice?’ written on the sides. A sign was on placed on either side of the machine. The left read ‘Naughty’ and the right read ‘Nice’. Sans smiled and decided to try out the machine, though he already knew what exactly he was.

He touched the screen and was greeted by the reindeer who asked him to put his name in. Sans chuckled to himself as he typed in, “Sins.” and hit enter. The machine told him to wait a moment then it printed out a little paper that had the word naughty written on it. Sans only grinned to himself and he walked to the left, down the darker path of the two.

He felt less scared than he had been feeling, mostly because he knew what to expect from down here. He always got sent down the naughty path the last few years. He had to at least try it once a year, once again due to his friends peer pressure. The naughty line was filled with ivy and fake pine cones hanging from them on the sidelines. It wasn't as colorful as it should have been, but that was only because the naughty side was meant to teach the children that they should strive to get on the nice list.

Mainly all it did was make the parents pay for a picture of their child either crying or pouting because they got coal from Naughty Clause. Sans had a small collection of pictures in his album at home of them. He treasured each and every one. Sans chuckled softly as he got closer and saw the camera, it was on, which he didn't question in his drunken state. Then he looked over to the chair.

There, sitting down, was Naughty Clause in all his glory. The dummy wore the red suit and hat, he had the fake white beard, and the big black leather boots on his feet. Sans could see point teeth sticking out from underneath the beard which interested him as he got closer. They must've upped their game this year with the dummy. He grinned and managed to climb onto the lap of the dummy and he squirmed a little till he got comfortable, the thong made it slightly uncomfortable but he posed for the picture anyway.

He winked and stuck out his tongue, making peace signs with one hand and the camera finally flashed. At least he had a decent picture to show his friends this year. He stretched for a moment then scooted forward to get off the lap of the dummy, only to find that he was being held in place. Sans let out a soft, “huh?” and he tried to sloppily wiggle out of place only for an arm to be wrapped around him, and it pulled him back against what he had assumed to be the dummies chest.

The smaller skeleton was a bit slow to react, having a hard time thinking as his mind went blank when he was pulled back, but before he could speak he felt something sharp against his neck. He lost his voice at the pressure of the tool against his delicate bones. Only a whimper escaped him. Fear shot through him as his body froze in place. His captors head lowers to his skull and warm breath brushed against his quivering lower jaw.

“shhhh..” Red lights glowed towards the shaking skeleton. The hand on his hip tightened and pushes his pelvis into the other’s crotch. A bulge rubs against the back of Sans’ coccyx. “..if yer be quiet and be a good little boy I’ll let yer live.” the voice whispered to him.

Sans slightly nodded and his sockets widened, his magic turned uneasily in him and he fought to keep it in. He would've turned to see his captors face but that seemed like a very bad idea at the moment. Silence hung in the air for a few moments before he could barely make out voices singing in the far distance. His friends, they had to come looking for him at some point! Hopefully that would be soon, he was damn near ready to pass out from fear.

His captor seemed to take his silence for obedience though and the knife was pulled away from his neck slowly. “if yer scream i won't hesitate ta hurt yer, little ‘sins’” the larger chuckled lowly and held up a slip of paper that had what Sans put his name as. “i'll even make yer a promise-” he started off and Sans watched as the knife lightly trailed one of his trembling arms. “i promise not ta hurt yer friends, if yer show Mr. Clause a good time.” The bulge beneath him grew when Sans whimpered lightly but nodded quickly.

“fuck- yer so perfect ain't yer~ tell me yer name sweetheart. remember, i'll know if yer lyin’ ta me.” Sans’ soul picked up and he shook his head quickly, he didn't want to give out his name. The knife however slowly trailed up his arm again and his captor growled lowly. Without warning Sans’ sweater was being cut open with the knife and a hand went over his mouth to hide the cries he made afterwards.

“yer not makin this easy fer yerself princess. i won't be so kind next time, so i'll ask again. What. Is. Yer. Name?” His sweater has been tossed to the floor and a flash was seen. The camera was still taking pictures, he realized hazily.

A soft sob ripped through him and he muttered under the hand. His captor moved it and placed his hand back on Sans’ hip bone. “i-its sans, sir..” Sans stuttered after taking a few deep breaths. His bones were rattling quietly now and his eye-lights were focused on the knife playing at his sternum. He noticed the hand of his captor was gloved, but he could see the wrist, bones. His captor was a skeleton monster just like him.

“there we go, tha’ wasn't so hard now was it Sans?” his name was purred out almost sweetly. The monster behind him sounded relieved and pleased. It didn't help Sans relax though. No, Sans was just as tense as ever. The only thing that did relax him was the knife finally being pulled away from his bones and being plunged into the arm of the chair they sat in, in one fell swoop the knife was forced there all the way to the handle. Sans wouldn't of been able to pull it out if he were sober, let alone tipsy. He definitely wasn't drunk any longer.

“p-please let me go.. sir.” Sans whispered politely, hoping he would listen an let him go. However the monster behind him only chuckled darkly.

“i don't think so. see what's gonna happen is yer gonna be real good fer me, and yer gonna stand up and take those pants off fer me. then yer gonna turn around and sit back on this lap after summonin’ a pretty lil pussy fer me. do ya understand?” Sans was ground down again so he could feel the warmth of the erection underneath him.

For once during this whole nightmare, Sans started to blush. More at the use of his captor's words than the cock beneath him. He had never summoned that kind of genitalia before, though he knew it to be possible. Sans let out a pitiful whimper and a low rumble was felt from the monster behind him.

Sans could practically feel the others eyes taking him in even as he was still sitting down. A sort of sickening thrill went through him, though Sans had no idea where it was coming from. Must've been the alcohol in his body that was making him feel strange. The rumbles didn't stop though. They in fact grew, making Sans whine for a different reason this time. Mr. Claus caught onto it immediately and groaned, relished at the sound. Sans finally nodded, slowly getting up with the monsters help and Sans felt a tug on his soul, keeping him grounded in one place, only letting him strip from his pants and Sans remembered his dare. The lace. His face turned blue as he heard deep chuckles coming from behind.

He turned to finally look at the monster. The fake beard had been tossed aside and Sans could clearly see the sharp teeth that were starting to haunt him. A gold tooth offset the pearly whites he had, making him look menacing. Those big sharp fangs twisted into a smirk when Sans was caught staring. The monster patted his lap and Sans watched before looking up to the others eyes, albeit hesitant, and for a brief moment Sans got caught up in those ruby red eye-lights the other adorned; not to mention the crack across his right socket.

Sans slowly moved back to the monsters lap, after looking down quickly and summing the softest looking pussy that made the larger growl with lust. The sound made Sans flinch and his soul was tugged to pull him even closer so Sans could straddle him and those big hands moved back onto his hip bones.

“perfect~ jus’ perfect Sans.” his captor whispered and made Sans grind down slowly, drawing a hitched little breath from the blushing skeleton in his lap. “yer beautiful, so very beautiful Sans.” one of the hands gently trailed Sans’ spine and the little skeleton arched into the largers ribs, placing his hands on them carefully. Sans looked down as he spoke, not wanting to hear something like that from this stranger.

“look at me when i speak ta ya sweetheart, i'll make this as enjoyable as possible. yer puttin in the effort too though. i wanna hear ya beg fer me to be gentle, otherwise imma ruin ya, and ya won be able ta walk fer weeks.” Sans gasped as the monster ground up harshly right into his soft, ever dampening folds.

“p-please don't hurt me mr.” Sans spoke in a whisper, looking up with soft doe eyes. His bones rattled softly to add to the plea. His captor gently touched his blushing cheekbone and brought him a little bit closer.

“mmm~ that's tha stuff sweetheart, now if ya ask nicely i'll let yer ride me at yer own pace. i won't even butt in. so whaddya say?” he took one of Sans’ hands and gave it a kiss of encouragement.

Sans squirmed, he didn't really want to ride anyone. Especially this monster; the one that made his soul feel fear and strangely enough, excitement as well. Sans supposed that in a way, if it kept him safer and his friends then he'd have to swallow down what pride he had. The small monster let out a soft whimper and he nodded. “please.. p-please let me ride you Mr. Claus, I- I would really like it if you let me ride you.”

“such a good little vixen~ let's stuff yer stockin’ with as much Christmas joy we can.” The naughty Santa’s eyes glimmered and he finally pressed their teeth together for a deep kiss.

Sans shut his sockets close and he pressed into the kiss. The back of his spine was being rubbed slowly, helping him relax even if just a little. The monster was being almost tender and caring as they smooched. Sans’ hands wandered down to the monsters pants and they pulled the garment down with ease. The monster’s cock had some girth to it, seeing such a thing made Sans squirm after breaking apart from the kiss.

“don’ be shy sweetheart-” another kiss was placed to his skull and a stray hand wandered to the wet thong Sans wore. The smaller gasped and mewled sweetly as he was rubbed slowly through them. “das it, let out those pretty sounds. imma take good care of ya.”

He practically melted at the words and slowly started to grind down on his own accord. He received soft praises from the other. It made his head feel light at the sensations. It was almost nice, almost like this monster was a lover rather than a rapist. It definitely helped when he thought that way. Then he heard a rip.

“i think it's time ta take these off beautiful. yer soakin’ fer me ain't ya? are ya ready to ride me love, an’ take this cock huh?” the thong was ripped from him, via the monster's claws. Sans bucked his hips a bit and he shivered in anticipation.

The larger monster leaned back in the chair and rubbed Sans’ femur gently. “yer all set Sans. whenever yer ready..” he trailed off in a gruff voice and stared intently at Sans’ small form in anticipation.

Sans slowly nodded and took a deep breath. He wasn't so sure how to start so he rocked his hips, gently grinding along the cock to lube it in preparation. He bit his tongue as his bundle of nerves was caressed in the motion, holding back a small noise that threatened to spill from his teeth.

The larger monster watched, groaning at the feeling of the deliciously wet folds sliding against his dick, his smirk widened as he tsked softly, “don’ hold back sansy, or i’ll be takin’ the reins to this sleigh.”

Jumping at the words, he rocked harder against the cock than intended, letting out an involuntary groan at the motion. His head tilting back from the unexpected feeling that travelled through his body. Reaching down he guided the spongy head of the cock to his folds and eased it along his entrance, spreading his juices along its thick girth.

With a stuttering breath and a slight groan he began to lower himself down onto the appendage, a small moan escaping as the bulbous head entered with a slight pop. Sans’ boney legs trembled slightly as he held himself up, gripping tightly onto his captor’s shirt as he slowly adjusted to the strange new feeling.

The monster he held onto cussed under his breath helping hold Sans in place, whilst mumbling how well he was doing, and how pretty he looked perched on his cock. After some time he started nudging the smaller to continue his descend, groaning as Sans lowered slowly down the thickest section with some resistance. After some shifting, Sans finally was seated with a deep breathy moan.

Again he heard a click. There was a flash of light, but it didn't register in his mind what that had been. Instead he tilted his head to the side as the monster he was on began kissing and nipping at his neck. It helped ease the ache he had felt at the moment, and with a gulp he hesitantly lifted himself, not even making it halfway back up the monsters girth before losing his momentum and sliding back down to the base. Sans let out a needy whine as he tried again but was unable to make it all the way up.

His captor groaned in what pleasure it did bring as he kissed along Sans’ jaw and took pity on him. “would ya like some help with that sansy?” He muttered gently. It could almost be mistaken for care, if not for the slight tone of amusement underneath those words.

The smaller skeleton nodded anyways, feeling desperate for some more friction. The larger hands placing themselves on his hip bones and caressing them slightly before easing Sans up along his captors shaft. Once just the head was remaining inside, the monster plunged back into his soft heat with a deep guttural moan.

Sans’ sockets widened and he let out a moan at the sudden painful and pleasurable sensation. As he tried to catch his breath he managed to gasp out, “D-do that again, please~” while shifting his hips eagerly.

The fake Claus looked like he hadn't been expecting Sans to get so into it. Enjoy it even. A deep rumble poured out of him as he stole a harsh kiss from his little vixen. Tongue swiping along blunt teeth requesting entry, and to his surprise was met with a broad blue tongue slipping out to run along his red one.

The sharp claws went to the back of Sans’ skull to press him closer as he helped guide the smaller along his twitching member once again. Any sounds that Sans made were muffled by the intense dance of tongues going on in his mouth. Imposter Claus continued to set a punishing pace by lifting and dropping Sans insistently on his throbbing cock.

Every drop hit deeper than the last, sending Sans into a frenzy of feelings that had him screaming in pleasure around the others tongue, and clenching around the heavy member inside his magic. Getting closer to his peak as his bundle of nerves was pressed upon deliciously, each time he was seated.

“yer doing so good, fuck. keep goin’- yea jus’ like that sansy.” The monster purred in that gravelly voice into Sans’ neck, sharp teeth grazing along the smooth bone as the larger grew closer to his own climax. He started thrusting up as Sans dropped down, pelvises crashing together, while he listened to the smaller making the most delectable sounds. Every moan and plea that escaped Sans was music to the monster; no doubt someone will have been alerted to them by now.

Sans’ blunt phalanges had moved up to the other's shoulder and back of his captor’s skull, they then began digging into the bone. He was so drunk on pleasure that he had forgotten all about the camera that would occasionally light up the monsters’ skull in a flash of light as he tossed his head back in wanton moans. Breathily he began to beg, “More, please… fill me up.. Please. So close...” he whined out.

That was enough to push the aggressive monster over. Just as Sans had begged, he sank his teeth into his blue eyed pet, growling into the mark as he held the other up and began to thrust up into the sweet heat. The monsters mind had gone blank at the thought of finally being able to fill up the precious creature he had lured in, knowing that he would be the one to claim the smaller once and for all.

It hadn't taken much more for him, after settling into a brutal pace, after a few deep thrusts Claus hilted himself fully as he was thrown over first. Releasing thick ropes of cum deep into Sans’ tightening walls. As the final thrust caused the smaller to clench, his own climax hitting as he felt the hot cum coat his magic. Sans screamed out in ecstasy before collapsing fully onto his captors chest as the pair reveled in their release.

Sans felt his skull being pet and he let out a sigh, starting to feel drained from the nights activities. He couldn't help but begin to drift off to the gentle praises and soft touches, “such a good boy. mah good boy.” the words making him feel light and special in this blissed out state. An arm was wrapped around him protectively, securing him in place as he fell asleep without a second thought.

--

The next morning Sans rolled over, hiding his head from the brightening sunlight that poured through his window. It took a minute for him to collect his bearings, realizing he was in his bedroom. How he ended up at home, he couldn't remember, one of his friends must have dragged his ass to bed. He groaned as he pulled a pillow over his head to hide from the rays that were cast over his face. The night had been a blur for him, the last thing he really remembered was picking up the alcohol and singing Christmas tunes before things started to get hazy. There may have been something lacy and blue involved but he couldn't remember why.

He would have to call and ask one of his friends once he had woken up and had something to eat. Before he could convince himself to leave the comfort of his bed, a loud pounding interrupted his thoughts and he groaned into his bedsheets. The knocking however was persistent and he wasn't able to drown it out.

Sans threw his pillow to the side and got out of his bed quickly, only to wobble and trip over himself as he moved towards his bedroom door. It must have been a bad night if he was stumbling everywhere, not to mention his pelvis was feeling extremely tender. He didn't have the time to dwell on that as the banging got louder.

“i'm coming!” he called out as he finally reached the door and unlocked it, swinging it open with a pout on his face. Standing there was one of his friends from last night, who had a relieved look on their face once they saw him. “what's the problem-” he had began but was quickly brought into a tight hug from said friend.

“You're alive! Holy shit Sans.” his friend exclaimed and let out a small relieved chuckle.

“uuuh yea? why wouldn’t i be?” he questioned to his friend.

“We thought you were killed!” his friend let out in a panicked whisper.

Sans was taken back and looked at him in surprise. “why would you think that?”

“Dude, you disappeared during the party. At first we thought you were just going home early or something, but when we went to see Joey in the security room he was dead!”

Sans felt his magic turn to ice at the discovery. His friend went on saying that they got the fuck out of there and called the police. Sans felt like he was gonna have a panic attack, his breathing getting harder and harder.

He slowly closed the door ignoring his friends’ concerned and questioning voice. The small monster slid down the door and sat. As the pain in his pelvis registers, so do the memories of last night. The machine, the Evil Claus. Sans’ breath hitched and he put his skull in his hands for a few minutes before digging through his pants pockets; he pulls out a slightly crumpled picture of him and the mall Santa and the torn lacy blue thong. On the picture red eyes, looking directly into the camera smiling, holding a sleeping Sans possessively to his chest. He lets out a shaky breath.

“..f-fuck.”

Hey, if you liked this chapter an want to see more stuff like it, please consider supporting our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/EughCooties

[dis-easedfairy]

Impulsive Decision Pt.6

Female Path | Male Path

Chapter 6: Different Feelings

Warnings: Kidnapping | Mentions of Rape | Slight Smut (not really)

Genre: Poly!au, angst, fluff, eventual smut, yandere!au

Pairings: BTS x Reader / Kim Taehyung x Reader / Kim Seokjin x Reader / Jung Hoseok / OC x Reader / Park Jimin x Reader (just a lil bit)

Word Count: 5,654 (sorry got carried away!)

Summary: F/n is the owner of a very wealthy and successful company, Barnanby Inc. F/n attends a BTS show. They make a very impulsive decision to show a loophole in BTS’s security and end up kidnapping BTS and 2 girls. In a fit of panic F/n stashes BTS and the girls in a very luxurious bunker for the time being, but F/n’s world slowly starts to crumble the longer the boys are out of the public’s eye.

A/N: Sorry this took longer than it was supposed to. I’m going to start Pt.7 as soon as I can!

I woke up in what seemed like Jason’s apartment. The room was too bright and I’m sure I puked in the trash near me at some point. I pulled myself off the couch and stumbled to the bathroom. I was wearing black ripped jeans, a white t-shirt, black boots and my father's varsity jacket last night. I had it all on, but the boots weren’t tied right, my pants unzipped, my shirt stretched out. The only thing left untouched was my jacket, thank god.

I wasn’t sure where Jason was, but I turned on the shower and opened the window for fresh air. I began to peel off the clothes, examining the bruises on my neck, chest, arms, legs, thighs, and stomach. I felt an emotional detachment from the bruises, like it was no big deal. I untied my boots and pulled off my pants and socks. More bruises. I got in the shower and just hoped Jason went to the bunker.

After the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and took a shirt from Jason. I put on my clothes from last night and searched for my phone. I found it under the couch.

I headed to the company, went into my office and stood there like nothing happened.

Around lunch I got a call on my office phone. I picked it up as I worked on what it would take to expand to snacks.

“ Barnaby Inc. L/n F/n speaking.” I answered, getting out a pad and pen.

“F/n? What are you doing at the office!? Everyone is worried.” Jason’s voice rang through.

“Everyone? Who’s everyone?”

“Jin, Tae, Hobi, Seongmi, they were wondering why you didn’t come home! I came this morning and thought you’d get here and explain why I just found you laying on the ground by the river!”

“Listen I have a lot of work to-”

“Why do you sound emotionless?” Tae suddenly asked.

“Of course I’m on speakerphone. Just, don’t worry. I’m working. I’ll be home for dinner.” I lied, turning back to my computer.

“Did you eat lunch?” Hobi asked.

“I’ll order something later.”

“F/n, what happened last night?” Jin questioned softly.

“Honestly? I don’t remember, okay?”

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Jason pressed.

“Yes! Just peachy, would you like to know my blood type as well?” I snapped.

I sighed.

“I’m sorry. That was wrong of me, you all just care. I’ll be okay, I just need the day to myself.” I added.

I saw a few interns guiding two men in police uniforms to my office.

“I have to go! I’ll be home for dinner.” I hung up before they could respond and waved them in before the intern could knock.

“Hello, officers? What can I help you with?” I asked, leaning on my desk like I actually cared.

“We’re here regarding the kpop group BTS, you must have heard they’ve gone missing by now?” Officer #1 stated.

Officer #1 looked like he was in his late 30’s. Office #2, however, looked about my age, he was actually pretty hot.

“I have heard. It would be impossible not to. Why?” I questioned.

“The police department would like for you to run an announcement on leads or other police matters regarding the case. We had gone you your sister, Broadcasting, but she stated that you were fully in charge of finalizing everything.” 

What a way to throw me under the bus, Jillian.

I frowned.

“Well, that’s regarding advertisement and lower budget animations. I don’t see why she didn’t let you run it. If you give it to me, I’ll be sure to have it broadcasted and give you the schedule in when it runs. ” I promised, writing when I felt the announcement should be scheduled.

“Thank you, Miss. L/n. That would be greatly appreciated.” Office #1 sighed in relief as he handed me the papers and a USB. 

“Where were you when BTS went missing?” Officer #2 quickly asked, earning a look from Officer #1.

I looked up to meet his gaze.

“With my family. We’re trying to expand to video games so we’ve been very busy here. I was supposed to go to the event but I chose to work instead, I sold my ticket to a random person online and that was that. I heard it was a good show…not considering the aftermath.” I didn’t miss a beat or falter. 

Officer #2 only nodded, dropping his gaze to the floor. I was praying they didn’t check my bank account. I did use my credit card to buy the everyone things, I used cash. They would see that I was using a lot more money than usual though.

I finished the makeshift schedule and signed the bottom of the paper and handed it to Officer #1.

“This is roughly when the announcements should come out, I signed it so your higher-ups will know it’s legit. I’ll be sure to call to tell you the exact times and or if anything changes.”

After the police left I called in an order for lunch, making sure I ate. As I was waiting I foolishly looked at my phone gallery. 

The pictures I didn’t want to see.

The videos that were disgusting.

The recordings that made me actually queasy.

I threw my phone across the room. I hated that phone and everything in it. I gathered my things and on the way out I get out a frustrated sigh. I walked over to the shattered phone and picked it up. I decided to pick up lunch and finally face everyone at the bunker.

As soon as I got out the car my heart started racing and I knew I had to get in there, say what I needed to and get away from everyone as soon as I could. I quickly unlocked the vault door and pinched in the dial code. I went as quick as I could to the double doors and was relieved to see them all gathered around the kitchen island. I grabbed the magnetic pad off the fridge and a pen that was nearby. 

Dog. Cloud. Moon. Stars. Rain. Cat. 

I pulled out the vault key and slammed it on top of the note as my chest felt tighter. I took my phone out my pocket and put it on the counter so I could get my keys from the same pocket and added it to the pile.

“You’re all free to leave tomorrow morning.” I announced, making everyone’s eyes widen,

“F/n, you can’t be se-” I cut Jason off by holding my hand out. 

“The longer you are all gone the worse everything will get. I… I’m an emotional wreck right now. Right now there is so much hitting me right now, but tomorrow I’ll be completely numb. So here is the dial code and the key to the vault. I’m sure Jason won’t mind driving you, just make up a story for him please.” I started quickly as I could feel and hear my heart going a million miles a minute.

“No! Not yet, F/n! At least wait until this partnership goes through!” Jason begged. 

“No! It’s not right, Jason!” I argued as I felt a heaviness on my chest as it tightened up.

“What happened last night!? Why is your phone shattered!? And why did you never pick up when I called you on it!?” Jason demanded.

“Who fucking cares about this fucked up phone!?” I grabbed my phone and threw it in an empty island drawer so no one saw or talked about it. 

The room was dead silent.

“You’re free tomorrow. I figured you’d all be happy.” I struggled a little to breathe with a sad smile as tears started to form in my eyes. 

I quickly left the room and found an empty unfurnished bedroom and sat on the floor as I felt my throat start to close up. I pulled my knees to my chest as my breathing became labored. I wasn’t sad, but a choked sob came from my chest as tears began to gather more. 

I woke up to the sound of the door opening harshly. The light from the hallway was bright. I just saw a figure at the door.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” The person growled.

“Wha-?” 

Jimin closed the door behind him and flicked on the lights. He walked closer to me. His face was twisted with pure anger, but he had tears in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone!? Why didn’t you go to the police!?” He almost shouted.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” 

Jimin pulled my shattered phone out his pocket.

“I figured out the password. I saw it all! They said their names in the videos, F/n! Those dumbasses showed their faces! You have solid evidence! You have proof that they raped you and yet you sit here doing nothing! Here! Look! ” Jimin got my phone and pulled up a video, holding it close to my face.

I hit his arm away, looking in the opposite direction.

“You’re seriously going to let these disgusting human beings walk around with no punishment!? What if they try to do it to someone else!? What if they come for you again because they think you’re compliant by not telling!?”

“What do you expect me to do!? Eighty percent of the police don’t care, Jimin! Not for my family at least! They will do less than they can! They don’t care what evidence you have that will prove I’m a victim! The fact that I kidnapped 9 people will also be found out if I tell! Jason isn’t out of the woods yet for me to do that!” I shouted back.

“No one deserves that! You don’t deserve that!” Jimin began to pace.

“Linza thinks so.” I spit coldly, making Jimin freeze.

“I mean if I go to the police, I’d be a hypocrite.” Jimin’s eyes widened.

“No! You won’t be! You’re not a rapist!” He suddenly sounded hurt.

“Says who? What if Tae, Jin, Hobi, and Seongmi fell into my ‘sick game’.” 

“Stop! I’m sorry okay!? You’re not a rapist! You’re just a girl who got sca-”

“A psychotic fan who isn’t sure of their sexuality.”

“Stop!” 

“That’s what I was when Linza tried to pin me down to the bed! That’s what I was when you held a knife to my back right!? Let’s keep it that way!” 

Jimin shook his head rapidly. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for yo-” I cut him off.

“I don’t get why you suddenly care about what happens to me. This isn’t the first time this happens, and with my luck, it may not be the last!” I stood up and began to push Jimin out the room.

“Go tell Linza, I bet she’s just dying to see the videos since she wanted to do the same. I’d bet you’d defend her if she tried again.” I snapped. 

Jimin whirled around and grabbed my upper arms.

“No! I promise I won’t defend her anymore! She’s sick! I won’t even look her direction if you don’t want me to! Just tell the police, F/n! They can’t get away with this!” Jimin pleaded.

I thought I actually saw pain in his eyes. I knew better now, he seemed caring and nice but didn’t actually care at all. When the next argument would happen, he wouldn’t defend me. If Linza decided to go after me again, he wouldn’t protect me. I smirked.

“They will.” I pushed him fully out and closed the door, locking it this time.

I shut the lights back off and leaned against the wall. I just wanted sleep, until the cops came. 

I woke up again in a room I couldn’t figure out at first, until I saw two Barnaby plushies on the bed across from the one I was on. I pulled myself to sit up. I looked around the room, trying to figure out why I was here and not arrested.

The door to the room opened. Tae slipped in, he was wearing just a regular gray sweater and black sweat pants. He saw I was awake and smiled.

I was happy to see him if I was being perfectly honest. Meaning they, or at least, he didn’t leave.

“How are you feeling?” Tae asked, quickly taking the place beside me on the edge of the bed beside me.

Numb.

“Uh, I’ll get back to you on that one.” I smiled a little. 

Tae frowned and put his hand on the center of my chest and slowly pushed me back. I lied back, confused as to what he wanted. Tae out his hand that was on my chest on the other side of me so he could hover over me. He was so close, yet I wasn’t even the slightest bit uncomfortable. 

I scanned his face and smiled. I cupped his face and ran my thumb gently under his left eye. 

“I hope people tell you how much your beauty marks make them crazy. ” I said is almost a whisper.

He smiled. He closed his eyes and came a little closer, letting his nose brush against mine. He began to rub his nose against mine, earning a giggle from me. He opened his eyes. Something about the way his half-lidded eyes were staring me made me keep his gaze. His eyes dropped to my lips and went back up to my eyes. 

My heart started to speed up, I’m sure it wasn’t any mental or physical disorders causing it. Just him.

I felt now. I felt wanted. Accepted. Comforted. Loved. His said so much without opening his mouth as his hand slid from the bed up my arm to the side of my neck. His eyes dropped back down to my lips as he tilted his head and softly pressed his lips to mine. 

The numbness was gone as I felt a million emotions at once. I returned the kiss moving my other hand to grip the side of his shirt and tilted my head to deepen the kiss. His other hand held onto my hip as he pulled away slightly to end this kiss. His hands left my neck and hip as they went to the front of my jeans. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going any farther, I just want to make you more comfortable.” He assured be against my lips. 

He unzipped my jeans and began to pull them down. I was suddenly hyper-aware of him seeing my underwear and the bruises littered around my body, but Tae didn’t seem to acknowledge either of them. I lifted up a bit to let him take my jeans off properly. once he got to my ankles, he moved off to the foot of the bed, to my shoes and untied them, taking them off and finished removing my jeans. 

Something about it all seemed very…husband.

He climbed back on the bed and crawled on top of me. Sitting on my thighs as he slid his hands up from my stomach to my jacket. 

“I didn’t know you played sports.” He frowned a bit.

“I don’t. It’s my dad’s.” He tilted his head slightly with a slight smile and pushed the jacket off my shoulders. 

I propped myself on my elbows, letting it slide off more. He climbed off to me and went to the dresser. He pulled out an oversized yellow hoodie and got back on the bed. I pulled my jacket off completely and took off my shirt. He handed me the hoodie. 

I had no idea why I was so comfortable. I even slipped my hands under the hoodie to take off my bra and handed it to him!  He put my bra in the same drawer he got the hoodie from, not even reacting to it. 

“Jin hyung will be in here to force-feed you in a little bit.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

I sighed, Jin would. Tae grabbed a throw blanket off the bedpost and threw it over my legs. Tae came close again, his hand squeezing my thigh. He gave me a quick kiss on the nose and seemed to giggle when heat flooded my face.

“Hobi hyung has been dying to see you too, I’ll see you later night, Girlfriend.” His smiled and made his way out. 

Tae calling me ‘Girlfriend’ always seemed like he was joking and teasing, but maybe all this time he really wasn’t. 

Oh god, I agreed to him rubbing my tits yesterday.

I put my face in my hands (sweater paws) as my face was on fire at this point. I peeked out to look at the clock on the dresser between the two beds. It was 7am. I was surprised I didn’t need to pee. The door flew open, making me jump. 

Jin came in, bowl with a spoon in it in his hand a small foldable table under his arm. He beamed at me.

“Glad to see you’re awake now! ” He set the bowl down on the dresser by the door and set the table up in front of the bed.

He set the bowl down on the table as he sat on the bed. The bowl looked like it was full of yogurt, granola, and several different fruits. Blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, bananas, grapes, peach, pomegranate, cherries, apple and what looked like a drizzle of honey over the whole thing.

“Do I have to force you to eat or will you be good for me?” His words made the heat in my face return.

I tried to hide my face with one of my hands, “I’ll be good,” I mumbled.

“Good girl” He smirked, looking at my face, more heat to my face. 

Was he testing me?? Jin never looked at me like that before. Then again neither did Tae. 

I moved to the edge of the bed and began eating. Jin brushed my hair out my face, gaze similar to the one Tae gave me. He was going to make me choke on my granola-fruit-honey-yogurt if he kept that up.

Stay in your lane, Kim Seokjin.

I began to pay more attention to my yogurt until I felt Jin’s hand move over a squeeze my thigh. He scooted closer to me.

“F/n? You look adorable in that hoodie.” He chuckled.

Why was his voice suddenly more deep??

He took a cherry out my bowl and popped it between his perfect lips. I quickly snapped my eyes back to the bowl. His hands wandered to the throw blanket.

“May I?” He asked in a whisper.

I only nodded. Jin pulled the blanket back. He frowned, tracing a bruise on my folded legs. He stood up, slid the table away and got on his knees in front of me. He lifted my left leg. While not breaking eye contact Jin slowly leaned down and kissed the bruise he was tracing. 

He broke eye contact and he looked for another bruise and kissed that one, then another. I covered my face with my hands, the heat coming off my face could warm the whole room. He didn’t stop until he kissed the last bruise on my thigh. He pushed my legs open and put himself between them so he was face to face with me. 

“Have I ever told you how everyone stares when you walk into a room?” He whispered.

I shook my head, fully shy now. He chuckled at my shyness and pulled my hands from my face. He ghosted his lips over mine.

“I think Taehyung and Hoseok get jealous when everyone stares. I know I do. Yet, I feel so proud at the same time. ”

“Why proud?” My voice was small.

“Because you’re ours and no one else's. Of course, you’d be perfect if you caught my attention.” I feel like he tried to sound like he was joking on the last part.

Yet I felt like the first part had a darker undertone.

He put his hands up to cup my face. So close. I felt his lips touch mine softly. The kiss was soft and slow, soon my hands were sliding up his chest, to his neck then finally into his hair. Jin slid one of his hands down to the side of my thigh and pulled me closer.

Tae filled me with comfort and assurance, warmth and understanding. Jin was this sweet blush. I felt taken care of. Jin was a different comfort I couldn’t explain.   

He pulled away, a smile on his face. 

“Finish your breakfast and rest more okay? I’ll have Hoseok bring you lunch.” Jin stated cheerfully, like he didn’t just get me the shyest I’ve ever felt in my life.

He stood up, moving away from me and pulling the blanket on my lap. He slid the table back into place and bent down to give me a kiss on my forehead.

“Eat up, N/n.” Once again I was left in the room.

“What the actual fuck is happening?” I asked myself breathlessly. 

  I stretched and smelled something heavenly. I looked over at the bed across from me and Hobi was casually playing a game on his phone, nothing out of the ordinary. As soon as I sat up he turned to me, brightest smile on his face.

“You’re up now!”  I’ve never seen someone so excited to see me before.

Hobi got up and got a plate off the dresser and set it in front of me. He sat next to me. 

“Who do I praise because this looks magical!” It was Tonkatsu or a version of it. 

Tonkatsu was basically a breaded and fried pork cutlet that was usually served with rice and its own sauce with different variations depending on where you got it. 

Hobi beamed, “I made it!” 

“It looks amazing, Hobi! Seriously. I tried to make it once, but the breading stuck to the pan, considering all the oil I put. I’m usually a good cook so it really surprised me at the time.” I talked like an excited child. 

I suddenly realized how much closer Hobi was sitting next to me. 

Oh no, I refuse to be blushing and shy this time.

I quickly decided to have the upper hand.

“Hobi?” I asked, my voice softer than usual. 

“Yes, N/n?” He answered, not seeming to notice.

I looked over at him, he was actually checking me out, which made me feel more confident for what I was about to do.

I smirked as I crawled on to his lap, facing him.

“So, Hobi, what were you planning to once I woke up?” I tested, feeling a sense of pride wash over me as he had a surprised look on his face.

I slid my hands up his chest to his shoulders, waiting for an answer. Hobi put his hands on my thighs, closed his eyes and leaned forward, once our lips connected I felt a surge of passion, a surge of dominance. 

I moved my hands from his shoulders to his hair and tugged his head back. He let out a gasp that allowed me to deepen the now rough kiss. Hobi’s hands slid up to my hips. I playfully slid my tongue into his mouth for a reaction and was more than pleased to hear a groan from him. His hands immediately groped my ass, pulling me closer. 

The kiss made me feel raw passion. It was like fire igniting my body, begging for me to go farther. 

Hobi turned and picked me up off his lap to lie me down on the bed. He pulled away, smirk on his face as his hand slid up from my hip, up my hoodie. He lifted my hoodie to expose my stomach and more bruises. He ended up doing exactly when Jin did. Kissing each bruise. 

I swore I felt his tongue brush against a few. He came back up to kiss my lips and fit himself between my legs. He pulled back a little bit, beautiful smile on his face. His smile made my heart face and my chest feel warm.

“You should eat before Jin, Tae, and Seongmi kill me.” He chuckled. 

I smiled. 

“So can I ask what’s going on with you, Jin and Tae?” I pressed. 

He only kept his smile, as he got off of me and the bed. 

“We’ll be here in a bit to eat dinner, you should rest after you eat. Jin says that sleep will help with all the stress.” He waved off my question, giving me a quick kiss on my lips. 

“See you in awhile!” He waved as he closed the door behind him.

Once dinner time came Tae and Hobi pulled in a small coffee table as Jin and Seongmi brought in food and drinks. I attempted to help but was told to just sit down. Once we began eating we heard a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Tae called, mouth a little full.

The door opened slowly and Jimin stepped into the room.

“Can I eat here?” He asked in a small tone, like he was a little afraid.

I frowned at his uncomfortableness and scooted more towards Tae to make room for Jimin between Seongmi and I.

“Be our guest.” I smiled, patting the empty spot.

Jimin smiled and closed the door, quickly taking the spot I offered. I looked over to Tae to ask him something but saw the look of warning he was giving Jimin. Thankfully Jimin was talking to Seongmi and didn’t notice. I playfully hit Tae.

“Why the look?” I hissed at him.

Tae shrugged, pretending not to know and resumed eating. Jimin tapped me.

“Yeah?” I answered turning to him, small smile on my face.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Letting me in. It looked like Hobi and Jin were against it and Taehyung was going to pounce if I came too close.”

“That’s exactly how Jungkook looked at me the first day you guys were here actually.” Jimin’s eyes widened.

“That’s terrifying.”

“I think it was because you looked afraid.” I smiled.

“Jikook is real.” I said under my breath and turned back to my meal like nothing happened, leaving Jimin with a bright blush on his face.

Tae and Hobi started laughing at my comment. Too hard I may add.

“Aw c’mon you guys, leave Jimin alone,” Seongmi complained.

“It’s not that funny!” Jin interjected.

“Sorry, Jimin. I didn’t know they’d suddenly turn into hyenas. ” I apologized.

Jimin gave me a shy smile.

Since when is he shy around me? He was either quiet or challenging me. Even when he was quiet he would give me the death glare. They only vulnerability he’s shown me is when he was trying to kill me.  I was confused, but ignored it and continued eating. I made sure to praise Seongmi, Jin, and Jimin who all cooked.

“Jimin only helped, mixing pots, taking things out the fridge and cabinets, not really cooking anything,” Jin informed.

“It still deserves praise, Jin. I didn’t do anything so I’m praising and thanking those who did.”

“Yeah, Jin! F/n’s just being kind!” Seongmi agreed with me.  

“Were you jealous that F/n praised someone other than you for food, Jin Hyung?” Tae teased.

“She liked my Donkkaseu that I made her for lunch,” Hobi added.

“You made her lunch!? You said she was asleep all this time!” Jin suddenly shouted.

“Wow, Hobi Hyung, you lied to Jin Hyung.” Tae instigated, continuing to eat.

Hobi looked like he wanted to hit Tae with a chair. And just like that Hobi and Jin began to bicker. I sighed.

“Jimin are you still alive?” I suddenly heard a voice ask from Jimin’s pocket.

“The fuck was that?” I asked Jimin.

“Jason downloaded a walkie-talkie app on all our phones so we can talk to each other without internet or cell service. You just heard Yoongi hyung.” Tae explained before Jimin could.

Jimin pulled out his phone.

“I’m fine, Hyung.” Jimin responded.

“...Are Jin and Hoseok fighting?” Suga sounded like he was smiling.

“HOW HARD IS IT TO BREAD AND FRY PORK CUTLET!?” Jin shouted with passion.

“IT’S BETTER THAN FRUIT AND YOGURT!” Hobi clapped back.

“I liked them both, will you stop fighting now?” I asked chuckling.

Tae wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me closer for some reason. I wasn’t sure why he was doing this, but I decided to test a theory.

“So, Seongmi, what were you doing before...well, before I kidnapped you?” I asked, leaning one arm on the table.

“I was actually working for your company. I uh, I’m an animator myself.” She looked at her lap, shy.

“Really? Any that I’ve heard of?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“No, I was just an assistant, it was supposed to help with the experience.” I frowned.

“Did it help?”

She shook her head again.

“Why not?” I was actually curious now.

“Some of the animators didn’t want to teach me anything or I just made coffee and supply run.”

“Those fuckers. You’re not their coffee mule. You’re an animator like them! Ugh, when I get to work I-”

“No! It’s fine its ju-”

“It’s not fine, Seongmi. I want nothing but kindness in my company, we don’t treat someone different whether they are a professional animator or an amateur, if you have a passion for it, they should respect you. If they won’t help you, I’ll ask my mom to.”

Her eyes lit up.

“Really?? You promise!?” She was bouncing up and down.

“You have my word.” I smiled at her adorable reaction.

Seongmi jumped up and held out her arms for a hug. I stood up and hugged her.

“I’ll help you out, you’ll do great.” I promised.

“This is probably what your mom felt when your father helped her out.” Seongmi giggled.

The whole room went quiet.

“You’re mom always talked about your dad. You’re a lot like him. Maybe you’ll get a wife like your mom.” She smiled.

I felt my face heat up.

“I-uh-Wife? I mean, I dunno, I’m pretty average and I’m not even sure of my sexu-”

“You should marry an animator! I know a ton of guys AND girls who have the hots for you!” She teased.

My face heated up more.

“Your mom says you love kids, so you getting married and adopting kids will be a breeze!” Seongmi was not stopping.

“Seongmi, be a little realistic, F/n hasn’t had that special someone yet.” Jin said quickly, almost like he was trying to dismiss what Seongmi was saying.

“Aw, Jin, don’t be ridiculous! Look at her, she’s wife material.” Seongmi started fixing my hoodie’s strings.

I laughed, “I’m in an oversized hoodie and my underwear, Seongmi, you make it seem like I’m in a beautiful gown.”

“You look good either way! Any girl would be lucky to have you, F/n.” Seongmi smiled, resting her hands on my shoulders.

“Seongmi, she likes gu-” She interrupted Hobi.

“I mean, you already know how to treat a woman.” She added with a wink.

She looked down then back up. I looked down. My arms were still wrapped around her waist and we were so close that my stomach was touching hers.

I jumped back and ended up tripping over Tae’s knee and fell on the bed.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize we were that close!” I apologized quickly.

Seongmi giggled.

“You really are adorable, F/n. It’s fine for us to be that close, we’re both girls after all.” She teased.

Just a second ago she was cute Seongmi who was shy and quiet. Now she looked like she would take me in front of everyone just for the fun of it.

I covered my face from embarrassment and shook my head.

After dinner, everyone talked and chatted for awhile. Around bedtime, everyone left but Tae.

He started pulling the blanket back on the bed.

“Jin hyung wanted to have your big bed to himself tonight, so it’s just us. ” He smiled.

“Huh? Am I taking Jin’s bed?” I asked, walking to the opposite bed.

“No, you’re sleeping in mine. With me. Come on! Let’s go to sleep!” Tae said, exited as he got under the covers and patted the space beside him.

I hesitated. He frowned.

“F/n~ Come cuddle!” Tae whined.

This was a trap I was sure of it. It took pure witchcraft to make my heartstrings tug from whining like that. This was pure magic if I’ve ever seen it.

I crawled into the covers and turned off the lamp, as soon as I turned to my side Tae attached himself to my back, wrapping himself around me.

After a few moments of silence, I felt something soft and wet on my neck with a slight ‘pop’ noise. My eyes flew open.

Did he just kiss my neck!??

It happened again. And again. As soon as he pecked a particular spot on my neck, I let out a small squeak. He let out a breathless giggle, trying to be quiet. I tried to squirm away but Tae tightened his hold and kissed my cheek.

“When we get out of here, I want to take you everywhere with us,” He whispered.

Before I could shut down that thought he continued.

“You mean a lot to us. To Jin. To Hobi. I’m sure Jimin’s warming up to you... I want you always be around. We care about you. Promise me, when we leave here, you’ll still try to keep in contact?”

His voice was like honey and I was so relaxed. I cared about them too. About him, about Jin, about Hobi. There was no way I’d just let them leave without them knowing that I did care.

“I promise, Tae.” He hummed in approval and snuggled close.

“Promise you’ll always be around.”

“Promise.” I yawned, my eyes feeling heavy.

( Previous Chapter ) - ( Next Chapter )

[phoenixsavant]

Blowout

Following Saeran’s First Christmas

No Nina in this one, but she’ll be back! 

The Agency found the bunker! 

Saeran sat in the darkened living room of the bunker, alone in the aftermath of the RFA party.  The lights on the tree blinked a multicolor rainbow in the darkness.  Bags of wrapping paper sat near the door, waiting to go out in the morning.  Empty plates and cups were still strewn on every surface.  Toby rested in Saeran’s lap, worn out from the activity of the day.

Saeran looked at his phone, smiling shyly.  Nina had demanded a picture of the two of them together.  MC pushed him closer to Nina and whispered in his ear. “She likes you!  Smile for the picture!” Saeran was a blushing mess, but he was smiling and looking at Nina in surprise and adoration when the picture was taken. Nina was beaming and had squealed in delight when she saw the result.

Nina had been a hit at the party. Everyone talked with her.  Jumin was so impressed with her painting that he hired her on the spot to do a portrait of Elizabeth.  V monopolized her for a solid half hour, talking about lighting and hues, whatever those were.  When it turned out that Nina knew who Zen was, he preened, making Saeran insanely jealous.  That jealousy was squashed when Nina ended up almost ignoring Zen and talking to Jaehee about him, instead.  Yoosung was star struck by Nina’s smile, the instant he met her.  He seemed to realize that there was something happening between Saeran and Nina though, and became enthusiastic about suggesting games that required teams of two.

Saeran wasn’t oblivious to the fact that he kept getting shifted to be near her. He wasn’t big on conversation to start with, but he’d been almost mute when standing near her.  He just felt everything he wanted to say sounded stupid.  He stammered and stuttered and embarrassed himself repeatedly.  Nina was very kind about it, though, and waited patiently for Saeran to get his words out straight.  He didn’t want Nina to think he’s stupid.  Hopefully they’d get to talk on the phone and he’d be able to become more comfortable with her.  Her number was saved in his phone and she had carefully saved his number in her purse.

Saeran’s hand idly toyed with Nina’s hair ribbon, still tied around Toby’s neck. Nina had swept the hearts of the RFA and his own as well. He thought about what to do, where he would take her on their first date. That was the next step, right?  Maybe he should check with MC first.  Maybe it was too fast to ask Nina out on a date.  He also didn’t have any experience with dating, and wasn’t sure that he’d get it right.

“There are still lights in the parks,” he thought to himself.  He liked walking under the trees and seeing the lights look like stars hanging around him. Maybe Nina would like that. The nearby shops stayed open so that if it was too cold, they could get warmed up. His mind imagined her under those lights, her red hair and green eyes glittering with the reflected glow. He felt his face burning again and his heart felt like it might leap from his chest.

Gathering Toby gently, and cradling the tiny kitten in his arms, he made his way to bed. For a first real Christmas, this had been a wonderful day. It was exhausting to have so many loud people around, but he’d had fun, too.  He laid down, making a protective nest in his arms for Toby and smiled as he fell asleep.

Saeran didn’t know what time it was when he woke. A red light flashed repeatedly from the ceiling and a siren blasted through the bunker. He jumped from the bed and ran into the hallway.

“Security system authorization admin 1053829.  Silent alarm!” Saeyoung shouted from the living room. Saeran saw him racing into the work room and followed. The siren stopped but the red lights kept flashing.

“What happened?” Saeran asked. His brother’s security system was supposed to be airtight.  He wondered if there’d been an error.

“I’m trying to find out,” Saeyoung said.  “There’s nobody outside.  Do you mind giving me a hand?” he asked. His voice was tense as he pulled up all the cameras in the CCTV system.

Saeran had seen this side of his brother once before. This was the real man beneath the jokes. This was the agent.  This was the man who would kill and sleep through the night.  This was the man who didn’t hesitate to act once he knew what to do.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“Watch those,” Saeyoung directed, pointing at the monitors with the camera feeds running. “I’m going to see if this is someone trying to hack the security system.”  He frowned as he worked furiously.

Saeran watched the screens but the views outside didn’t move.  He heard Saeyoung curse briefly under his breath. For a split second, he thought he saw something, but the image remained clear of any sign of intrusion. That was when he realized, each feed flickered. The front door, the garage, all around the outside, like a ring.  One feed flickered, then the next, and then the next. Alerting Saeyoung, Saeran pointed at the screen. “You need to see this,” he said.

Saeyoung looked up, watching the screen. The video feed flickered again.  Saeyoung’s eyes went wide.  “Security system authorization admin 1053829.  Engage secondary monitoring!” He shouted, typing furiously on his keyboard.

A new video feed appeared on the screen Saeran was watching. It was flooded with people in black combat gear carrying rifles. Saeran didn’t know guns well, but he knew what this meant. The Agency had found them.  The spy network that his brother had defied, to save him, had found their home and was trying to get in.  If they did, Saeran knew what would happen.

“Fuck!” Saeyoung exclaimed. “Saeran, get your bag. Leave your phone and anything electronic. We’re leaving.”  He vaulted from his chair and ran to the hallway, calling for MC.

Saeran scrambled to his room and grabbed the large backpack from beneath his bed. Seeing Toby, he realized he’d almost forgotten the new kitten in the chaos. He dragged Toby out by the scruff of his neck, shoving him inside his jacket.  He shoved his feet into his shoes just in time to see MC and Saeyoung spill out into the hallway behind him.

“Downstairs, go!” Saeyoung shouted. Saeran turned and heard MC behind him. The basement was a mess. It was filled with boxes and crates and who knew what was in any of them.  He opened the door and ran down the stairs as quickly as he could. Heavy steps followed, and he heard the door close at the top of the stairs.

“Saeyoung, why are we in the basement?” MC asked, her eyes filled with fear.

“Because this is the way out,” he replied. “We have to wait for a few minutes though. I have to know that they’re inside.”  He was watching the screen of what looked like a handheld video game.

Saeran looked over his shoulder and saw the feed from the security camera. The men outside were strapping explosives to the door. Saeyoung shook his head at them. “Idiots.  You know how to be precise with that stuff. You’re going to kill yourselves,” he muttered.

He watched the screen for a few minutes and as the people backed away from the image, he looked up and set the device on a box. He looked at his brother and at MC.  His eyes had nothing in them but regret.

“There’s going to be an explosion upstairs. We have to wait 47 seconds after that and then we can go. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten either of you involved.”

MC rested a hand against Saeyoung’s face. “Don’t apologize,” she said gently. I knew that this day might come.”

Saeyoung didn’t look comforted. He put his hands on MC’s shoulders and backed her toward Saeran. “If anything happens...”

Saeran could only nod. He lifted a hand and rested it on MC’s shoulder.  His heart was pounding and his mind was spinning.  He knew his brother wanted him to protect MC, but how?

“Security system authorization admin 1053829,” Saeyoung said again.  Prepare countdown. Rover. Run silent.”

The red light in the basement stopped flashing and turned yellow.  They waited in silence.

An explosion shook the bunker and Saeyoung spoke again. “Security system authorization rover, run command liftoff, engage rover silent.”

“Be ready,” he said to his family. “Go to the back wall.”  As MC started to move, he said to her, “Cover your ears. Please.”  His eyes were begging.

She covered her ears as small ports opened in the walls of the basement. Saeran smelled gasoline so thick he choked on the fumes.  He heard liquid pouring out and assumed that was the gasoline he smelled.  

“Security system, engage sunlight,” Saeyoung said, hanging his head.

Saeran heard and felt a series of explosions.  He heard screaming from upstairs.  The screams were short-lived, but Saeran knew he’d never forget them. Toby scrabbled against him, unhappy with the confinement, sounds, and smells.  He tried to pet him through the jacket, talking softly.

“We’re going,” Saeyoung said.  He reached for MC and she stepped into his arms. He steered her forward.  Reaching around her, he pushed on the wall, revealing a secret panel. Turning the switch inside, he opened a door.  The hallway inside was dark and the air smelled musty.

He handed MC and Saeran a flashlight. “You brought Elly?”  

When she nodded, he held out his hands and she passed him the robotic cat he’d made for her.  “Elly, wake up,” he said.  The cat’s eyes lit up and it wiggled its ears.

“Elly, escape sequence five.  Follow the path.”  He set the cat in the entry to the tunnel and turned to MC. “I’ll be right behind you.  I have to...” he looked back at the basement that had been his home.

MC took Saeran’s hand and entered the hallway. She followed Elly and led him through a series of twists and turns. After a few minutes, he heard something heavy drop far behind them. He stopped, looking back.

“He said he’s coming,” MC said, pulling Saeran forward. “We have to keep going.”

They had barely taken another three steps when the walls and floor shook so hard they both nearly fell. A roaring sound, almost like a dragon, came from the tunnels behind them.  Then there was the sound of rubble falling.  

MC looked up at Saeran, terrified.  Toby picked that moment to claw his way out of Saeran’s jacket. He leapt to the floor, hair standing on end and tail bristled out. Running, he vanished into the darkness back the way they had come.

Saeran didn’t hesitate. He ran after the kitten, leaving MC shouting for him to come back. Luckily, they were in a long, straight stretch, but the kitten reached the fork in the path and sped off to the right.  Chasing after him. Saeran tried to remember which way he came. He didn’t have to run far. The tunnel ended and Toby huddled in the corner, crying.

Grabbing him up, Saeran buried his face in the soft fur. He wanted to cry, but swallowed his emotions and stuffed Toby back into his jacket, pinning him there as tightly as possible.  He had just lost his first home.  He wasn’t going to lose his first pet.  

Hurrying back to the main tunnel, Saeran saw a light bobbing towards him. He doused his flashlight and stepped back into the side tunnel, waiting to see who was coming.  His brother ran by, covered in dirt.  

“Saeyoung!” he called, stepping from the tunnel.  He froze.  His brother had a pistol pointed at his face.  

“Shit!  You should be out of here by now!” Saeyoung cursed.  “Hurry!  It’s all coming down!”

Saeran’s eyes went wide, but he followed his brother and ran as fast as he could.  It was a struggle to keep up without losing Toby again.  They caught up to MC and Elly.  Saeyoung didn’t slow, except to reach down and scoop Elly up as he ran. MC ran with him, her eyes catching the terror in Saeran’s eyes.  

Explosions rocked the tunnel behind them, getting closer despite the brutal pace that Saeyoung set.  The only pause was when Saeyoung put in a passcode at a doorway and the door swung open. Saeran was gasping for breath as they emerged in an old junk yard.  Saeyoung didn’t stop running though.  He kept going, and so MC and Saeran ran after him. Another explosion broke loose, and this time, fire flashed upward just before a cloud of dust and rubble took the exit they’d just come out of.  

Saeyoung slowed then, stopping to lean against the rusted-out hull of a car. “Are… you… hurt?” he gasped at MC.

“No,” she replied, “Fine.”  She was as winded as the twins were.

“Saeran?” Saeyoung asked.

“Fine,” Saeran coughed.  He was relieved that they’d made it out of the bunker, and that Toby was still safely with him.  He knelt on the frozen ground, his legs too wobbly to keep going.  

Once he caught his breath, Saeyoung crushed MC against his chest.  He didn’t say anything.  He just held her, clinging to her as if to reassure himself that she was still with him.  When he could speak, all he said was “I’m sorry,” over and over again.

MC tried to comfort him, but he seemed caught in a wave of guilt that wouldn’t let go.

“What the hell did you have that place rigged with?” Saeran asked, still hearing the screams of the men who had invaded the bunker.  

Saeyoung shrugged.  “A few things.  It turned the place into a firebomb.  The basement went next.  Once I was in the tunnel, I set off the charges that brought the bunker in on itself. The others were set on timers throughout the tunnels so that no one will figure out which route we took.”  He sighed heavily and buried his face in MC’s hair. “I’m sorry.  It’s my fault they found us.  I should have been more careful.  I should…”

“Saeyoung, no,” MC said to him, softly.  “They were looking for you, it was going to happen someday.  That’s why you had us pack the bags, remember?  It’s just that it happened tonight, and you weren’t expecting it.”  

“She’s right,” Saeran added.  “Those guys, they weren’t going to stop until they got you.  They were too pissed about you taking me and Vanderwood.”  He frowned, looking around at the junk yard as the frigid air started to seep into him.  “What do we do now, though?”  

“Now we go someplace we can be safe for tonight,” Saeyoung said, still sounding broken.  He held up the mechanical cat.  “Elly, send a message to Vanderwood.  Tell him I am going to location ten.”

“Message will be delivered,” Elly confirmed.  

“Come on,” Saeyoung said.  “Let’s get out of here.”  He trudged toward a building that looked like it might fall in on itself.  He took out a key and unlocked the door.  

The building turned out to be a small garage.  The car inside looked like it might collapse if anyone touched it wrongly. Saeran looked at it skeptically, but his brother opened the door and helped MC get in.  When he opened the trunk, Saeran followed him around to the back to put his pack in.  The trunk made him gasp.  It was loaded with weapons and ammunition.

“She doesn’t know about this,” Saeyoung said flatly.  “It stays that way.”  

Saeran nodded silently in response and then followed Saeyoung to the side of the car where they got in.  

The car turned over smoothly.  Saeran figured that he should have known, given his brother’s love of cars, that it’d be ready to run.  As Saeyoung pulled away an old man stepped out of a trailer and waved at him. Saeyoung waved back and drove out to the street.

“You’ve had this set up for a long time, haven’t you?” MC asked him.  

“I never knew when I’d need it.  Buying that junk yard just turned into the best money I ever spent.  It meant you two are safe.”  

“You bought the entire junk yard?” Saeran asked in surprise.  “Why not just rent it or something?”  

“Because since I owned it, that man gets to live in his home the rest of his life. His bills are paid, and he gets a paycheck for keeping kids out.  In exchange, he didn’t ask questions.  Tom is a nice guy, really, once you get to know him.”  

“Wait!  That was Tom?” MC exclaimed.  “I thought you made him up!”  

That made Saeyoung smile briefly.  “Nope.  Tom inherited the junk yard from his parents.  He never married, but he was losing money and looking to sell.  So, I made the best offer.  He’s been the closest thing to a friend I’ve had in a long time.  He even helped me work on this baby.”  

“Oh… your cars…” MC cried softly.  “Oh, Saeyoung…”  

“No, they aren’t important,” he said, reaching over to take her hand. “Everything important in my life is in this car with me.”  He looked into the mirror at Saeran.  “That includes you.”  

Saeran and MC fell silent as Saeyoung drive them across town and into the worst neighborhoods.  As they left the better areas, Saeyoung apologized and flipped a switch on the car. It went from running smoothly to choking and sputtering.  He pulled up in front of a very questionable looking hotel and the car did him the favor of backfiring as it turned off.

“Wait here.  I’ll be right back,” he said.  He got out of the car and went into the office.  A few minutes later he returned with a door key on an aged wooden oval. “Our reservations were still good,” he smiled at MC as he opened her door.  “The doorman and porter are already gone for the night, though. We’ll have to carry our own bags.”

Saeran got out of the car and looked around.  This place screamed infestation and filth.  Where had his brother brought them?  He sighed again, cradling Toby, who had fallen asleep in the car, and went to the trunk to help with the luggage.  Following his brother, he found himself led to a narrow breezeway and through.  Around the back was a small toolshed.  

Saeyoung opened the door and looked over his shoulder.  “Watch your step,” he said.  “It’s steep.”  

The toolshed sat above a rickety looking wooden staircase that dropped almost straight down into the earth.  Saeran looked down the stairs doubtfully.  “MC, let me go first.  If you fall, I can catch you.”  Seeing her nod, Saeran took the first tentative steps down the stairwell.  

At the base of the stairs was a long room with concrete walls.  Directly across from the stairwell was a table with two chairs.  A narrow space behind the table was lined with shelves and storage lockers.  At the far end were two bunk beds and a toilet between them.  Along one wall was a small stove and sink, with a tiny counter space to separate them. Shelves of canned goods lined the wall and the space under the stairwell.  

“It’s not much,” Saeyoung said, apologetically.  “There’s blankets in the footlocker.  I’ll get some heat going.”  He dragged out an electric heater and plugged it in, facing it toward the beds.  

MC was so sleepy that she didn’t seem to care if it was cold or not.  She went to the first bed and laid down, closing her eyes.  

Saeyoung stood, watching her sleep.  Saeran saw tears beginning to form in his eyes.  He put a hand on his brother’s shoulder and was surprised when Saeyoung turned and hugged him.  This time, he didn’t tell his brother to get off of him.  This time, he was crying, too.  Everything was gone.  They were alive, but how long would they have to hide?  What was he going to tell Nina about the painting and the bunker?  Would he ever have a chance?  

Toby began to protest being squished between the twins, making both of them chuckle as they stepped back from one another and wiped their eyes.  

“I think she has the right idea,” Saeyoung said.  “Vanderwood will be here early.  We need to get some sleep and be ready to move when he gets here.”  

“Saeyoung, you don’t think they went after Vanderwood, too, do you?” Saeran asked.  

Saeyoung shook his head.  “If they did, I’d have gotten a message through Elly.  Since the agency never knew about her and she doesn’t connect to any networks, we set up a relay in case of emergency.”  

Saeran shook his head.  What he was thinking was, “Crazy-ass, braniac spies.”  What he said was, “Oh, that’s smart.”  He took the top bunk, across from MC.  

Saeyoung tossed him a blanket and a small pillow.  Then, pulling a blanket over himself and MC, Saeyoung closed his eyes.

Saeran was pretty sure that Saeyoung wasn’t sleeping, but the little heater was working wonders at warming the place up, and soon Saeran was asleep next to Toby’s purring form.  

[ironchefignis-archive-blog]

For @choiminhovevo, I was your Secret Santa! I hope you enjoy your gift! :) @ignoctsecretsanta.

Title: Twelve Days Of Memories. Rating: Teen (SFW) Warning: None! Summary: Twelve days is all it took to turn Noctis’ life upside down, but not necessarily in a bad way- after all, he had Ignis back, after so long apart.

Find it on AO3!

The Crown City; the star of Lucis. Once home to the King of Kings, built to last with blood and sweat, only to be torn down hundreds of years later by the daemons that once roamed the planet. Rebuilt by the King Of Light's retainers, and by the hands of those the King of Light had befriended throughout his journey to banish the Darkness and daemons, it has stood for hundreds of years more.

Although peace has made the people of Lucis lulled into a lullaby, Sleeping Gods shall awake once more and when they do, history shall join with the present. One can only hope that the people of Lucis shall be ready for what shall come to pass.

* * *

“Rise and shine sleeping beauty!” The blonde teenager laughed as his best friend swatted at him, an unhappy groan falling from his lips as the raven-haired youth rolled over in his bed and buried his head underneath the pillow. “Oh c'mon now! Up and at 'em!” Prompto tugged at the pillow, crowing successfully when Noctis let it go.

“Did you have to do that right in my ear?” the assaulted one grumbled as he sat up. Running a hand through his hair, the squinted as he glanced around the darkened room, hardly able to make out the shape of the other. “Ugh, what time is it?”

“Eleven-thirty,” Prompto answered as he shoved open the dark curtains that blocked out almost all of the light in the bedroom; which prompted another groan from Noctis. “C'mon, dude. Your parents and I gave you long enough to sleep in, we've got things to do today, remember?”

Apparently Noctis didn't, if the bleary and confused look he was giving Prompto said anything.

“The new Assassin's Creed game comes out tod-!” Prompto let out an undignified yelp as the other teenager's bedding was suddenly thrown at him, nearly toppling over from under the weight of the heavy blankets.

“That was today?!”

Prompto shook his head, a resigned look upon his face as Noctis hurried around his bedroom, snatching a clean pair of shorts off of the floor before snagging a shirt from the closet. “You are so lucky you pre-ordered the game. I don't think we'd be getting it otherwise.”

“We still might not, depending on how busy the store it.” Noctis raked his fingers through his hair, trying to make himself more presentable before giving in and snagging a cap from his dresser.

“We're going to the little game store on the far side of town, so it can't be that bad, right?”

Of course, their luck wasn't all that great, and Noctis figured that Prompto should've accepted that by now. The little game store across the Crown City was, of course, extremely busy. Part of Noctis had been expecting it, honestly, with how popular the Assassin's Creed series was, but there had been the small balloon of hope that had been popped the second they saw the line for the game store was around the block.

A few hours had gone by, by the time they got out. Knowing that Prompto's place was closer than his own they decided to crash there for the day, and after sending a text to their parents (Noct's mother and father, and Prompto's dad) Noctis and the blonde made their way down the winding city streets, following the familiar path towards the center of the city.

There in the middle of Insomnia, was the Citadel. The grandness of the building never failed to take their breath away, but whenever Noctis got to close his heart began to trouble him, so the two never got much closer than the street across from the building.

“Y'know, sometimes I still think it's amusing that your family has the same names as the Royal Family,” Prompto said as they passed the Citadel. No longer used as a home for the Royal Family, but still mightily important for the Government, the Citadel was open to most. Only the bedrooms and many of the meeting chambers were off limits to the public.

“You say that every time we pass by here.”

“Well, I still do!”

Giving a quiet hum, the youth peered at his best friend, who was whistling the chocobo theme song as the walked. “You know, you have the same name as the King of Light's best friend, supposedly,” Noctis pointed out as they headed down the next street. It was something he had learned recently in history, and having a different class from Prompto, he didn't know if-

“I know, and that's awesome, right?” Prompto grinned widely, hooking his hands behind his head as they walked, practically skipping as he said, “Well, it's either Prompto to Laetus. It gets lost in the translation, but a name like Noctis isn't hard to forget, Mr. Nightlight.”

Well that answered that question. “Shut it,” Noctis groaned.

Prompto snickered as his best friend glared playfully at him. “I guess everyone can't have as cool as a name as Quicksilver.”

“Don't you mean dorky? You sound like a gun from a video game series. Wasn't there one in that one game, Final Fantasy VII, or something?”

“Mr. Night. Light. And yes, it was Vincent's starter weapon. It's in a lot of the Final Fantasy games, though. Almost as famous as Masamune, I presume. Always a gun- I don't understand your obsession with swords in video games, guns are so much better! Then again, you lose at first-person shooters all the time.” Prompto snickered.

“Touche, and I hate you.”

The other teenager threw his arm around Noctis' shoulders, playfully cooing. “Aww, love you too buddy.”

“No, I hate you.” Noctis lightly nudged Prompto's stomach with his elbow, causing the latter to fall away dramatically, wheezing.

“Nah, man. I know you, know what you really mean to say. After all, we've been friends since we were what, six, seven?”

“Something like that. First grade, at least.” Noctis gave a little nostalgic sigh. “Back when homework wasn't a bitch to do.”

Prompto grimaced his agreement. “Tell me about it. I'm so gonna fail the math quiz on Wednesday.”

“I keep tell you, Prom, just get Gladio to tutor you. Who knows, maybe he'll tutor you in other ways, too.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at the blonde, who blushed darkly, his freckles standing out like little beacons as he shoved a laughing Noctis.

“No way! Besides, we both know he likes girls and not guys. 'specially not scraggly little guys like me.” And there was that disappointment in his tone Noctis often heard whenever he teased the blonde about his crush on their friend and Prompto denied that Gladiolus would ever like him.

“Yeah, well, then he doesn't know what he's missing out.” Noctis was waiting for the two of them to stop dancing around each other. Whenever the three of them got together it was obvious (to him, anyways) that they looked at each other in obvious attraction, flirted without even knowing it. What annoyed Noctis most was that they both obviously ignored their feelings, with Gladio going out on a date every other week and Prompto whining like a love-sick puppy. “And you don't either. Now, c'mon! The cafe's nearby and I've starved.”

Nestled comfortably between two larger buildings along the side-road near the two was a small little establishment called Sagefire. Owned by a friend of Noctis' family, the two teenagers often find themselves in the little place, sitting in one of the booths eating lunch on the weekends or just stopping by for a drink to-go, Gladiolus occasionally joining them. Something always seemed missing to Noctis, but if Prompto felt it too he never uttered a word.

The bell above Sagefire's door tingled as Prompto pushed it open, Noctis just a step behind. Lunch rush had already passed, telling the two that their time at the game store was longer than anticipated. A faint smile curved Noctis' lips upwards as he noticed that their usual booth in the corner of the shop by the window was unoccupied and made a beeline for it.

“I'll go order. Only fair since you got the game and all. The usual?” Prompto asked once they reached it, barely getting a nod from Noctis before he was hurrying away. Settling himself comfortably in the booth, Noctis slipped his phone out of his pocket, immediately starting up his game of King's Knight. When Prompto joined him minutes later he was in the midst of a dungeon. “Started without me? No fair,” the blonde playfully complained as he slipped into the seat across from him. “Dude, there's a new guy here that I bet is totally your type.”

“Uh huh. You said that about that new guy at the game store the other week. Couldn't have been further off.”

“I'm serious this time! That's why I placed our orders separate, so that you can see him for yourself.” Ah, so Prompto knew him well enough that he wouldn't look up from his phone until they left. Fair enough.

“All right. Now get on, this Level Four is kicking my ass.”

For a while they only spoke when encouraging each other in the next dungeon, hissing out instructions for begging to be healed – more in Prompto's case than Noctis' own.

It wasn't long before, “Prompto.” was called out. Noctis' brows rose in curiosity at hearing the smooth, accented voice. Tenebraen? Now that wasn't an accent you often heard. Of course, Noctis was too drawn into his game to look up, uttering a quiet curse as the nearest enemy shot down his health bar by half.

“And that's me.” He hears the quiet scuffle of Prompto getting out of the booth and making for the counter,

“Highness.” It takes a moment, and another call of “Highness!” for Noctis to realize that the smooth accented man was calling out for him. Immediately the dark-haired youth's lips twisted into a scowl as he turned his displeasure onto Prompto, who did look puzzled.

“Haha, very funny.”

“Wasn't me, dude.” Prompto held his hands out, looking completely serious. He knew how much Noctis hated anyone calling him 'Highness', had for as long as Prompto could remember. “Was probably the bartender or something.”

“With a name as popular as mine you'd think they'd stop getting a kick out of it,” the dark-haired youth grumbled as he stood, purposefully letting his chair scrape loudly against the floor. Scowling as he made his way over to the counter where the bartender had turned around to deal with the next order, unable to see the man's face.

“Hey.” As he reached said counter, Noctis opened his mouth to complain about the stupid nickname and to ask the man not to do it again, the man turned around and the teenager felt his mouth dry. He was hardly older than himself, but the way he carried himself was with a grace of a man who had to be royalty. Even working in a place like this (a nice coffee shop, but not an extremely fancy one) he was dressed to his nines, a nicely pressed white dress shirt and black slacks, dusty brown hair pushed upwards into a pompadour.

Glasses framed his eyes, and that had been exactly what made Noctis freeze; his sapphire gaze meeting with a very familiar set of emerald hues.

“...Ignis?”

He watched as lips curved upwards into a smile, those eyes softening as the man greeted softly, “Hello, Your Highness.”